Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Shares of Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $137.88, but opened at $131.40. Workday shares last traded at $136.1550, with a volume of 479,177 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDAY has been the topic of several research reports. Summit Redstone set a $275.00 price objective on shares of Workday in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $216.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. UBS Group raised their price target on Workday from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Workday from $155.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Workday from $300.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $184.00.

Workday Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $129.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $147.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 1.11.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 21st. The software maker reported $2.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.51 by $0.15. Workday had a return on equity of 14.75% and a net margin of 8.60%.The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Workday, Inc. will post 5.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was 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 owned 288,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,451,702. This represents a 2.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through 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 the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.90, for a total transaction of $724,952.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 239,469 shares in the company, valued at $32,304,368.10. This represents a 2.19% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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. Insiders have sold 766,602 shares of company stock valued at $99,108,423 in the last 90 days. 18.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Workday during the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Workday during the third quarter worth about $26,000. DT Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Workday in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Workday during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, JPL Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Workday during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

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.