Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates "Outperform" Rating for Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY)

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating reissued by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $340.00 price target on the software maker's stock. Royal Bank of Canada's target price suggests a potential upside of 40.36% from the company's current price.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Workday from $350.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Workday to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Workday from $310.00 to $295.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Workday from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $293.38.

Workday Trading Down 11.0%

NASDAQ WDAY traded down $29.84 on Friday, reaching $242.23. The stock had a trading volume of 4,837,414 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,583,877. The company has a quick ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $242.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $254.22. Workday has a 12-month low of $199.81 and a 12-month high of $294.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.30.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 22nd. The software maker reported $2.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.01 by $0.22. The business 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%. The company's revenue was up 12.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.74 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Workday will post 2.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Workday

In other Workday news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 66,455 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.52, for a total transaction of $17,246,401.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 102,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,729,781.44. This trade represents a 39.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Carl M. Eschenbach sold 3,125 shares of Workday stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.61, for a total transaction of $733,156.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 10,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,544,814.67. This represents a 22.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 321,724 shares of company stock valued at $77,976,126 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 19.31% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bristlecone Advisors LLC lifted its position in Workday by 49.6% during the 4th quarter. Bristlecone Advisors LLC now owns 2,921 shares of the software maker's stock worth $754,000 after acquiring an additional 968 shares during the period. Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Workday during the fourth quarter worth approximately $369,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Workday by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC now owns 109,013 shares of the software maker's stock worth $28,129,000 after purchasing an additional 9,324 shares during the period. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in shares of Workday by 17.7% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 97,529 shares of the software maker's stock worth $25,165,000 after purchasing an additional 14,682 shares during the period. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in Workday in the 4th quarter valued at $8,984,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.81% of the company's stock.

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.

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