California Public Employees Retirement System Cuts Stock Holdings in Workday, Inc. $WDAY

Key Points

• California Public Employees Retirement System cut its Workday stake by 35.9% in the first quarter, selling 200,691 shares and leaving it with 358,428 shares worth about $46.6 million.
• Analyst sentiment remains constructive, with Workday carrying a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $181.37, even as recent firms issued mixed calls ranging from market perform to buy/outperform.
• Workday reported solid quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates as revenue rose 13.5% year over year; however, the stock also saw notable insider selling, including transactions by CFO Zane Rowe and major shareholder David A. Duffield.

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY - Free Report) by 35.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 358,428 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 200,691 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.14% of Workday worth $46,567,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its position in shares of Workday by 25,412.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 10,190,516 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Workday by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,009,288 shares of the software maker's stock worth $5,371,495,000 after buying an additional 3,210,232 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in Workday by 101.4% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,017,905 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,077,537,000 after buying an additional 2,525,821 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Workday during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $448,804,000. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Workday by 87.8% during the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 4,338,773 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $931,882,000 after buying an additional 2,028,085 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDAY has been the topic of several recent research reports. HC Wainwright set a $140.00 price objective on Workday in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Citigroup reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Workday in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $216.00 price target on shares of Workday in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Barclays raised shares of Workday from an "overweight" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of Workday in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $181.37.

Insider Buying and Selling at Workday

In other news, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.70, for a total value of $862,200.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 288,460 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $41,451,702. This represents a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 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 firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.04, for a total transaction of $13,119,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 105,049 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,820,179.96. This trade represents a 50.58% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 875,020 shares of company stock worth $113,938,503 over the last quarter. Insiders own 18.64% of the company's stock.

Workday Price Performance

Shares of Workday stock opened at $147.22 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $36.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $131.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $143.53. Workday, Inc. has a one year low of $110.36 and a one year high of $249.85.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The software maker reported $2.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.51 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 14.75% and a net margin of 8.60%.Workday's quarterly revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.23 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 5.34 EPS for the current year.

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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