Mizuho Securities USA LLC Takes Position in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC acquired a new stake in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 20,188 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $5,209,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of WDAY. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Workday by 562.2% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 2,447,735 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $631,589,000 after acquiring an additional 2,078,097 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Workday in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $194,679,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake in Workday by 1,094.2% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 613,800 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $150,019,000 after purchasing an additional 562,400 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Workday by 62.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,360,002 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $350,921,000 after purchasing an additional 524,799 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in Workday by 340.3% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 655,733 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $169,199,000 after purchasing an additional 506,812 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDAY has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Workday from $310.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Workday from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $265.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Workday from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Workday from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Workday from $300.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $300.36.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director George J. Still, Jr. sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.33, for a total value of $1,809,975.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 75,000 shares in the company, valued at $18,099,750. The trade was a 9.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 56,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.70, for a total transaction of $14,879,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 228,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,579,600. The trade was a 19.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 473,001 shares of company stock worth $120,614,400. Corporate insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Workday Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDAY opened at $249.49 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $66.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $256.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $255.11. Workday, Inc. has a twelve month low of $199.81 and a twelve month high of $294.00. The company has a quick ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The software maker reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by ($1.27). Workday had a net margin of 19.86% and a return on equity of 6.13%. The business had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 EPS for the current year.

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.