Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Stock

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) had its price objective upped by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley from $315.00 to $330.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the software maker’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price points to a potential upside of 22.14% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on WDAY. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Workday from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup decreased their price target on Workday from $274.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Workday in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research report on Monday. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Workday from $275.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.14.

Workday Stock Performance

Shares of WDAY stock traded up $2.50 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $270.19. The company had a trading volume of 4,189,936 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,775,521. The stock has a market cap of $71.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.07, a PEG ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 2.04. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $248.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $237.21. Workday has a 52-week low of $199.81 and a 52-week high of $311.28.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.13 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 5.34% and a net margin of 19.59%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.47 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Workday will post 2.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director George J. Still, Jr. sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.45, for a total transaction of $1,915,875.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 90,000 shares in the company, valued at $22,990,500. This represents a 7.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 66,492 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.20, for a total transaction of $17,367,710.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 102,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,902,816.40. The trade was a 39.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 359,954 shares of company stock valued at $88,742,132 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Workday

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Workday by 21.3% during the 3rd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 2,280 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $557,000 after buying an additional 401 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp grew its position in Workday by 5.7% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 19,590 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,788,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in Workday by 43.8% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 13,546 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $3,311,000 after acquiring an additional 4,128 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Workday in the 3rd quarter worth about $4,893,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Workday by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 29,633 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $7,934,000 after purchasing an additional 1,978 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.