Principal Financial Group Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY - Free Report) by 1.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 408,267 shares of the software maker's stock after acquiring an additional 5,043 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.15% of Workday worth $95,343,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WDAY. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. purchased a new position in Workday in the first quarter worth $32,000. TCTC Holdings LLC bought a new stake in shares of Workday during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Financial Management Professionals Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Workday by 54.0% in the 1st quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 154 shares of the software maker's stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Workday by 78.6% in the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 150 shares of the software maker's stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new position in Workday during the first quarter valued at about $40,000. 89.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 497 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $112,595.35. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 34,385 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,789,921.75. This trade represents a 1.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Carl M. Eschenbach sold 6,250 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $239.43, for a total transaction of $1,496,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,472 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $352,440.96. This represents a 80.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 331,775 shares of company stock worth $77,836,828. Insiders own 19.31% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDAY has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $255.00 price objective (up previously from $230.00) on shares of Workday in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Workday in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $340.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Workday from $310.00 to $275.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $297.68.

Workday Price Performance

Shares of WDAY traded up $4.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $242.03. 1,301,745 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,462,966. The company has a market cap of $64.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 133.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 1.21. Workday, Inc. has a 1 year low of $199.81 and a 1 year high of $294.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $249.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $249.67. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

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

Workday Company 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.