Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stake in Workday, Inc. $WDAY

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group cut its Workday stake by 27.7% in the fourth quarter, selling 94,650 shares and ending with 246,844 shares valued at about $53.0 million.
• Workday reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $2.47 versus $2.32 expected and revenue of $2.53 billion, up 14.5% year over year.
• Despite the earnings beat, analysts remain mixed: the stock has a Moderate Buy consensus, but several firms recently lowered price targets and ratings, and insiders have also been selling shares.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY - Free Report) by 27.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 246,844 shares of the software maker's stock after selling 94,650 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.09% of Workday worth $53,017,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. First Eagle Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Workday in the third quarter worth about $556,252,000. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co bought a new position in shares of Workday in the third quarter worth about $1,805,000. Phoenix Financial Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Workday in the third quarter worth about $2,000,000. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Workday in the third quarter worth about $124,718,000. Finally, EULAV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of Workday by 69.4% in the third quarter. EULAV Asset Management now owns 61,000 shares of the software maker's stock worth $14,685,000 after purchasing an additional 25,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company's stock.

Workday Price Performance

Workday stock opened at $127.83 on Friday. The company's fifty day moving average price is $129.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $177.74. Workday, Inc. has a 1 year low of $110.36 and a 1 year high of $276.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.32.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The software maker reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.32 by $0.15. Workday had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 13.37%. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.92 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Workday, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on WDAY shares. Robert W. Baird set a $195.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on shares of Workday from $250.00 to $125.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Citizens Jmp lowered Workday from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Rosenblatt Securities decreased their price objective on Workday from $180.00 to $150.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Workday from $255.00 to $180.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $199.71.

Insider Activity at Workday

In other Workday news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 107,500 shares of Workday stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.33, for a total transaction of $12,075,475.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 105,049 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,800,154.17. The trade was a 50.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 1,585 shares of Workday stock in a transaction on Friday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.05, for a total transaction of $179,184.25. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 31,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,557,344.35. This trade represents a 4.80% 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 a total of 989,814 shares of company stock worth $131,576,291 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 19.31% of the company's stock.

Workday 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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