Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) shares gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $259.73, but opened at $272.44. Workday shares last traded at $265.66, with a volume of 1,327,179 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Loop Capital decreased their target price on Workday from $270.00 to $242.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $270.00 price target (down previously from $285.00) on shares of Workday in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Workday from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Guggenheim raised Workday from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Workday from $280.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Workday currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $292.25.

Workday Stock Up 4.0 %

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $260.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $249.53. The company has a market capitalization of $71.87 billion, a PE ratio of 44.77, a P/E/G ratio of 4.73 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.13 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 6.13% and a net margin of 19.86%. The company’s revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.47 EPS. Research analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Sayan Chakraborty sold 5,498 shares of Workday stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.78, for a total transaction of $1,378,788.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 121,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,369,458. The trade was a 4.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Wayne A.I. Frederick sold 1,829 shares of Workday stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $253.09, for a total value of $462,901.61. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,845 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,732,401.05. This represents a 21.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 438,819 shares of company stock valued at $113,142,592 in the last three months. 20.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Workday

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Workday by 7.2% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 29,633 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,934,000 after purchasing an additional 1,978 shares during the last quarter. Grafton Street Partners Fund LP acquired a new position in shares of Workday in the third quarter worth $4,424,000. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Workday by 32.4% in the third quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 31,878 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,791,000 after acquiring an additional 7,802 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Workday by 20.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 702,990 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $182,753,000 after acquiring an additional 119,769 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc raised its holdings in shares of Workday by 19.3% in the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 44,324 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,833,000 after acquiring an additional 7,175 shares during the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.