BTIG Research Reaffirms Buy Rating for Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY)

Key Points

• BTIG Research reaffirmed its Buy rating on Workday and kept a $175 price target, implying roughly 40% upside from the current share price.
• Workday’s latest quarterly results beat expectations, with EPS of $2.47 versus estimates of $2.32 and revenue of $2.53 billion, up 14.5% year over year.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed overall: the stock has a Moderate Buy consensus with a $199.71 average price target, while recent insider sales and strong institutional ownership were also highlighted.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at BTIG Research in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $175.00 price objective on the software maker's stock. BTIG Research's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 39.99% from the company's current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Workday from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Evercore downgraded Workday from an "outperform" rating to an "in-line" rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Raymond James Financial restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Workday from $298.00 to $214.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $195.00 price objective on Workday in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Nineteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $199.71.

Workday Price Performance

Workday stock opened at $125.01 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $32.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.45, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.04. The firm's fifty day moving average is $127.74 and its 200 day moving average is $172.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. Workday has a 52-week low of $110.36 and a 52-week high of $274.65.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The software maker reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.32 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Workday had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 13.37%. Workday's revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.92 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Workday will post 5.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Workday

In other news, insider Gerrit S. Kazmaier sold 9,356 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.39, for a total value of $1,201,216.84. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 165,074 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,193,850.86. This represents a 5.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 107,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.33, for a total value of $12,075,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 105,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,800,154.17. The trade was a 50.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 989,814 shares of company stock valued at $131,576,291. Company insiders own 18.64% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its stake in Workday by 270.9% in the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 372,618 shares of the software maker's stock worth $48,411,000 after buying an additional 272,160 shares during the period. SummitTX Capital L.P. purchased a new position in Workday in the 1st quarter worth about $1,552,000. Ardmore Road Asset Management LP purchased a new position in Workday in the 1st quarter worth about $15,370,000. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in Workday in the 1st quarter worth about $1,388,000. Finally, Lead Edge Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Workday during the 1st quarter worth $79,988,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company's stock.

Workday Company Profile

Workday, Inc NASDAQ: WDAY is a provider of cloud-based enterprise applications focused on human capital management (HCM) and financial management. Founded in 2005 by Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri following their tenure at PeopleSoft, the company develops software-as-a-service solutions that help organizations manage workforce and financial processes in a unified, cloud-native environment. Workday's platform emphasizes continuous updates, data security, and a configurable architecture aimed at large and mid-sized enterprises.

The company's product portfolio centers on Workday Human Capital Management and Workday Financial Management, with additional offerings for payroll, talent management, workforce planning and analytics.

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