Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Workday has a consensus “Hold” rating from 40 analysts: 20 recommend buying, 18 advise holding, and 2 rate it a sell. The average 12-month price target is $206.34.
• Workday exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $2.75 EPS versus the $2.61 estimate and $2.65 billion in revenue, up 12.8% year over year.
• WDAY opened at $189.45, while insiders sold $156.1 million worth of shares over the past three months; institutional investors own 89.81% of the company.

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the forty ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have given a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $206.34.

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Workday from $115.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, August 28th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Workday from $158.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Workday from $216.00 to $238.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, August 28th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Workday from $200.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Workday from $182.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 28th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Mark Garfield sold 918 shares of Workday stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.19, for a total value of $130,530.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 73,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,481,962.42. The trade was a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Gerrit Kazmaier sold 2,728 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.62, for a total value of $391,795.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 266,388 shares in the company, valued at $38,258,644.56. The trade was a 1.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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. Insiders sold a total of 914,123 shares of company stock valued at $156,076,163 over the last three months. 18.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Workday

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WDAY. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its holdings in Workday by 25,412.8% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 10,230,616 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $2,197,332,000 after acquiring an additional 10,190,516 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Workday by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,091,926 shares of the software maker's stock worth $1,089,970,000 after purchasing an additional 75,922 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Workday by 101.4% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,017,905 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,077,537,000 after purchasing an additional 2,525,821 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Workday in the 4th quarter valued at about $448,804,000. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Workday by 39.7% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,709,736 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $367,217,000 after purchasing an additional 486,008 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.81% of the company's stock.

Workday Stock Down 0.8%

NASDAQ WDAY opened at $189.45 on Friday. Workday has a 1-year low of $110.36 and a 1-year high of $249.85. The company has a market capitalization of $45.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.43, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.08. The stock's 50 day moving average is $181.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $147.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 27th. The software maker reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.64 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 20.95% and a net margin of 12.32%.Workday's quarterly revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.21 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Workday will post 5.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

More Workday News

Here are the key news stories impacting Workday this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Workday launched Total Benefits, an AI-powered platform that combines employees’ health, financial and wellbeing benefits in one location. The offering and its self-service guidance agent could deepen customer engagement and expand Workday’s human-capital-management opportunity. Workday launches Total Benefits
• Positive Sentiment: Workday is expanding its payroll ecosystem through partnerships with Block’s Cash App and Experian. Eligible U.S. workers will be able to direct paychecks to Cash App, while Experian’s income-verification integration may streamline onboarding and verification. These additions could make Workday’s payroll platform more valuable and support customer adoption. Workday expands payroll and verification ecosystem
• Positive Sentiment: One analysis argues that WDAY could be significantly undervalued after its latest earnings beat and new payroll deals. Workday previously reported quarterly revenue of $2.65 billion and EPS of $2.75, exceeding consensus estimates, though the valuation estimate is an external opinion rather than company guidance. Workday could be undervalued
• Neutral Sentiment: Commentary around Workday’s AI benefits hub and partner network reinforces the long-term growth narrative, but the reports do not provide a new revenue forecast or quantify near-term financial benefits. Workday AI benefits hub analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short interest was zero shares as of September 24, indicating little evidence of short-selling pressure or a likely short squeeze.
• Negative Sentiment: Major shareholder David Duffield sold 99,613 shares for approximately $19.1 million, cutting his position by nearly 49%. The sale occurred under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, reducing its value as a discretionary bearish signal, but the transaction can still pressure investor sentiment. SEC filing

Workday Company Profile

Workday, Inc develops cloud-based enterprise software designed to help organizations manage finance, human resources and related business operations. Its platform provides tools for financial management, accounting, procurement, expenses, payroll, workforce management, recruiting, talent management, employee experience and enterprise planning.

The company also offers analytics, reporting and artificial intelligence capabilities that support budgeting, forecasting, workforce planning and business decision-making.

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