Workday’s (WDAY) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $300.00 target price on the software maker’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target points to a potential upside of 17.55% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on WDAY. Barclays lowered their price objective on Workday from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com downgraded Workday from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Workday from $287.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Loop Capital upped their target price on shares of Workday from $242.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Workday from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $330.00 to $275.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.54.

Workday Trading Down 2.5 %

NASDAQ WDAY opened at $255.22 on Wednesday. Workday has a 12 month low of $199.81 and a 12 month high of $311.28. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $259.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $254.12. The stock has a market cap of $67.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.33, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.35.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The software maker reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.75 by ($1.27). Workday had a net margin of 19.86% and a return on equity of 6.13%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Workday will post 2.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Carl M. Eschenbach sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $253.86, for a total value of $1,586,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,546,931.92. This represents a 30.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 56,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.42, for a total value of $13,799,520.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 60,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,785,200. This represents a 48.28 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 438,819 shares of company stock worth $113,142,592. Company insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Simplicity Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Workday by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC now owns 1,277 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $330,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Workday by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 966 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $249,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC lifted its stake in Workday by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC now owns 1,412 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $364,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Workday by 19.4% during the 4th quarter. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC now owns 252 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Workday by 42.2% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 145 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Workday Company Profile

Workday, Inc provides enterprise cloud applications in the United States and internationally. Its applications help its customers to plan, execute, analyze, and extend to other applications and environments to manage their business and operations. The company offers a suite of financial management applications to maintain accounting information in the general ledger; manage financial processes, such as payables and receivables; identify real-time financial, operational, and management insights; enhance financial consolidation; reduce time-to-close; promote internal control and auditability; and achieve consistency across finance operations.