National Pension Service Purchases 49,070 Shares of Workday, Inc. $WDAY

National Pension Service raised its holdings in shares of Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) by 11.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 460,512 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 49,070 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned 0.19% of Workday worth $56,376,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WDAY. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its holdings in Workday by 11,770.8% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 36,907,426 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,518,207,000 after acquiring an additional 36,596,516 shares during the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its holdings in shares of Workday by 25,412.8% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 10,230,616 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,197,332,000 after purchasing an additional 10,190,516 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Workday by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,770,707 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,098,552,000 after purchasing an additional 96,139 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Workday by 47.5% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,842,491 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,406,463,000 after purchasing an additional 1,882,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Workday by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,091,926 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,089,970,000 after purchasing an additional 75,922 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Workday

Here are the key news stories impacting Workday this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrade: DBS Bank upgraded Workday to “Hold,” providing a more favorable view of the stock after its recent recovery. The rating follows Workday’s latest earnings report, in which revenue rose 12.8% year over year to $2.65 billion and adjusted earnings exceeded expectations.
• Positive Sentiment: New chief marketing officer: Workday appointed Sarah Kennedy Ellis as chief marketing officer, effective October 5. Her experience is expected to support the company’s enterprise AI positioning, brand expansion and go-to-market strategy. Workday Names Sarah Kennedy Ellis Chief Marketing Officer
• Positive Sentiment: Industry recognition: Workday was named a leading human-capital-management provider for the 11th consecutive year, reinforcing the strength of its core HCM franchise and competitive position. Workday named HCM leader for 11th straight year
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data: Reported short interest was zero, producing a zero-day short ratio. Because the figures show no meaningful short position, the data provides little indication of near-term buying or short-covering pressure.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: Major shareholder David Duffield sold 90,615 shares worth approximately $17.95 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, reducing his stake by 46.3%. Workday’s CFO also sold 2,808 shares for about $550,000. Planned transactions do not necessarily signal deteriorating fundamentals, but the sales can weigh on sentiment.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WDAY. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Workday from $158.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Workday from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 28th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Workday from $140.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Workday from $200.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $206.34.

Workday Trading Up 0.3%

NASDAQ:WDAY opened at $185.70 on Friday. Workday, Inc. has a 1 year low of $110.36 and a 1 year high of $249.85. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $171.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $144.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $44.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.08.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 27th. The software maker reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.64 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 20.95% and a net margin of 12.32%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.21 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 5.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 107,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.04, for a total value of $13,119,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 105,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,820,179.96. This trade represents a 50.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.70, for a total transaction of $862,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 288,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,451,702. This represents a 2.04% 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. Insiders sold 738,096 shares of company stock worth $106,054,737 over the last quarter. 18.64% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Workday Profile

Workday, Inc develops cloud-based enterprise software designed to help organizations manage finance, human resources and related business operations. Its platform provides tools for financial management, accounting, procurement, expenses, payroll, workforce management, recruiting, talent management, employee experience and enterprise planning.

The company also offers analytics, reporting and artificial intelligence capabilities that support budgeting, forecasting, workforce planning and business decision-making.