Morgan Stanley Reiterates $255.00 Price Target for Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY)

Morgan Stanley set a $255.00 price objective on Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Free Report) in a research note released on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the software maker's stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Workday from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Loop Capital increased their price target on Workday from $242.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Workday from $350.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 31st. UBS Group upped their target price on Workday from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Workday from $310.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $293.54.

Workday Price Performance

WDAY traded down $0.03 during trading on Friday, hitting $239.28. 1,310,791 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,547,153. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $242.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $253.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 2.05. Workday has a twelve month low of $199.81 and a twelve month high of $294.00. The company has a market cap of $63.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.68, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.30.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The software maker reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.01 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $2.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.22 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 6.13% and a net margin of 19.86%. Workday's revenue was up 12.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.74 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Workday will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 497 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total transaction of $112,595.35. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 34,385 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,789,921.75. The trade was a 1.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Carl M. Eschenbach sold 3,125 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.61, for a total value of $733,156.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 10,847 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,544,814.67. The trade was a 22.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 321,724 shares of company stock worth $77,976,126. Company insiders own 20.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Workday by 2.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,598,655 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $4,810,404,000 after purchasing an additional 455,855 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Workday by 61.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,637,387 shares of the software maker's stock valued at $1,193,105,000 after buying an additional 1,772,223 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Workday by 47.5% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,764,598 shares of the software maker's stock worth $879,147,000 after acquiring an additional 1,211,659 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Workday by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,736,609 shares of the software maker's stock worth $872,610,000 after acquiring an additional 14,354 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Workday by 60.7% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,722,255 shares of the software maker's stock worth $960,454,000 after acquiring an additional 1,406,088 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.81% of the company's stock.

About Workday

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.