Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Sold by Bank of Nova Scotia

Key Points

• Bank of Nova Scotia reduced its stake in Workday, Inc. by 34.8%, selling 29,481 shares and ending the quarter with 55,343 shares valued at approximately $12.9 million.
• Insider trades included 6,000 shares sold by CFO Zane Rowe and 451 shares sold by CAO Mark S. Garfield, indicating a slight decrease in their respective holdings.
• Workday's quarterly earnings surpassed expectations, reporting $2.23 EPS with a revenue increase of 12.6% year-over-year.

Bank of Nova Scotia decreased its stake in shares of Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY - Free Report) by 34.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 55,343 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 29,481 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia's holdings in Workday were worth $12,924,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WDAY. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in Workday by 5.0% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 22,645 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $5,288,000 after buying an additional 1,070 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Workday by 13.9% during the first quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,136 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $265,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Workday by 33.8% in the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 32,055 shares of the software maker's stock worth $7,486,000 after buying an additional 8,093 shares in the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Workday in the 1st quarter worth about $290,000. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Workday by 27.8% in the 1st quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 1,601 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $374,000 after acquiring an additional 348 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company's stock.

Workday Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDAY traded up $1.09 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $222.07. 1,822,165 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,306,844. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 122.54, a PEG ratio of 3.46 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 2.07. Workday, Inc. has a 52-week low of $205.33 and a 52-week high of $294.00. The company's 50 day moving average price is $238.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.47.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The software maker reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.01 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $2.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.22 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 8.00% and a net margin of 5.60%. The firm's revenue was up 12.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 73,971 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total value of $17,653,918.86. Following the sale, the insider owned 102,997 shares in the company, valued at $24,581,264.02. This represents a 41.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Carl M. Eschenbach sold 6,250 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.43, for a total transaction of $1,496,437.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,472 shares of the company's stock, valued at $352,440.96. This represents a 80.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 329,005 shares of company stock worth $79,203,523 in the last quarter. 19.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler restated an "underweight" rating and set a $235.00 price objective (down from $255.00) on shares of Workday in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $340.00 price target on shares of Workday in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Workday from $310.00 to $275.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Workday from $320.00 to $300.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Workday from a "neutral" rating to a "mixed" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $296.88.

About Workday

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.