Saudi Central Bank Raises Stock Position in Workday, Inc. $WDAY

Key Points

• Saudi Central Bank increased its Workday stake by 87.5% in the second quarter, adding 6,876 shares to own 14,738 shares valued at approximately $1.8 million. Institutional investors collectively hold 89.81% of Workday’s stock.
• Workday exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $2.75 in adjusted earnings per share versus the $2.61 consensus and $2.65 billion in revenue, up 12.8% year over year.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed but generally constructive: the consensus rating is “Hold” with a $206.34 target price, while several firms recently raised their targets to between $224 and $240.

Saudi Central Bank increased its position in shares of Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY - Free Report) by 87.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,738 shares of the software maker's stock after acquiring an additional 6,876 shares during the period. Saudi Central Bank's holdings in Workday were worth $1,804,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Workday in the second quarter worth $25,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new stake in Workday during the third quarter valued at $26,000. DT Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Workday during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Workday during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, JPL Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Workday in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Workday Stock Down 4.9%

Shares of NASDAQ WDAY opened at $186.28 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.79, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.08. Workday, Inc. has a one year low of $110.36 and a one year high of $249.85. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $168.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $143.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 27th. The software maker reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.14. Workday had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 20.95%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.21 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 5.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Workday

In other Workday news, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.70, for a total transaction of $862,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 288,460 shares in the company, valued at $41,451,702. This represents a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 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, insider Robert Enslin sold 5,374 shares of Workday stock in a transaction dated Sunday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.90, for a total value of $724,952.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 239,469 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,304,368.10. This represents a 2.19% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 754,981 shares of company stock valued at $101,916,181. 18.64% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on WDAY shares. CLSA initiated coverage on Workday in a report on Monday, July 20th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $92.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Workday from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Workday from $200.00 to $224.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, August 28th. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Workday in a report on Friday, August 28th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Workday from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 28th. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $206.34.

About Workday

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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