Insider Selling: Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Major Shareholder Sells $18,587,388.96 in Stock

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) major shareholder David Duffield sold 99,228 shares of Workday stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.32, for a total transaction of $18,587,388.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 105,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,677,778.68. This trade represents a 48.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Large shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

Workday Price Performance

Workday stock traded down $2.29 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $184.26. The company had a trading volume of 1,519,068 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,756,008. The company has a market capitalization of $44.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.07. Workday, Inc. has a 12-month low of $110.36 and a 12-month high of $247.40. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $188.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $150.56. 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) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 27th. The software maker reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.61 by $0.14. The business 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 business’s revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.21 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Workday, Inc. will post 5.33 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BTIG Research downgraded shares of Workday from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Workday from $200.00 to $224.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Workday from $182.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Workday from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 5th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on Workday from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 28th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $206.34.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Auto Owners Insurance Co lifted its stake in shares of Workday by 25,412.8% in the 4th 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. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of Workday by 101.4% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,017,905 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,077,537,000 after purchasing an additional 2,525,821 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in Workday by 8.7% in the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,803,568 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $364,217,000 after buying an additional 223,493 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in Workday by 39.7% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,709,736 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $367,217,000 after buying an additional 486,008 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Workday by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,559,835 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $335,021,000 after buying an additional 144,833 shares during the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Workday Company Profile

Workday, Inc develops cloud-based enterprise software for managing an organization’s people, finances and operations. Its platform is primarily used by businesses, government agencies and educational institutions to support human resources, finance, planning, analytics and related administrative processes.

The company’s offerings include Workday Human Capital Management, Financial Management, Adaptive Planning, Spend Management, payroll, recruiting, talent management, learning and workforce analytics.