Northern Trust Corp Buys 149,731 Shares of Workday, Inc. $WDAY

Key Points

• Northern Trust Corp has increased its stake in Workday, Inc. by 6.6%, owning a total of 2,413,712 shares worth approximately $563.67 million as of the latest reporting period.
• Insider trading reveals that CEO Carl M. Eschenbach and CAO Mark S. Garfield sold significant amounts of stock recently, indicating potential strategic repositioning or portfolio adjustments.
• Workday's recent financial performance showed strong growth, reporting a 12.6% increase in revenue year-over-year and exceeding earnings per share estimates by $0.22.

Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY - Free Report) by 6.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,413,712 shares of the software maker's stock after purchasing an additional 149,731 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned 0.91% of Workday worth $563,674,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its position in Workday by 26.6% in the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,409 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $329,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP boosted its position in Workday by 121.1% during the 1st quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 4,205 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $982,000 after buying an additional 2,303 shares during the period. 17 Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Workday by 12.6% during the 1st quarter. 17 Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,854 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $666,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. Corient IA LLC purchased a new stake in Workday during the 1st quarter valued at $234,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its position in Workday by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 774,072 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $180,769,000 after buying an additional 19,590 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.81% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Workday

In related news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 73,971 shares of Workday stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.66, for a total transaction of $17,653,918.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 102,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at $24,581,264.02. This trade represents a 41.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Carl M. Eschenbach sold 6,250 shares of Workday stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 1,472 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $352,440.96. This trade represents a 80.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 329,005 shares of company stock worth $79,203,523 over the last 90 days. 19.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on WDAY shares. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Workday from $300.00 to $270.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Workday from $295.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Westpark Capital upped their target price on Workday from $315.00 to $328.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. UBS Group decreased their target price on Workday from $250.00 to $245.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on Workday from $295.00 to $278.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Workday has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $283.76.

Workday Stock Up 0.8%

WDAY traded up $1.6710 during trading on Monday, reaching $222.9410. The stock had a trading volume of 889,669 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,440,983. The stock's 50 day moving average is $232.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $242.23. The company has a current ratio of 2.10, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market capitalization of $59.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 103.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.24. Workday, Inc. has a one year low of $205.33 and a one year high of $294.00.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 21st. The software maker reported $2.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.12. Workday had a return on equity of 9.74% and a net margin of 6.51%.The business had revenue of $2.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.75 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Workday has set its FY 2026 guidance at EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Workday 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.