Oppenheimer Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Stock Price

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) had its price objective lowered by equities research analysts at Oppenheimer from $200.00 to $165.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the software maker’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 24.31% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on WDAY. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Workday in a report on Monday, February 9th. Barclays cut their price objective on Workday from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore downgraded shares of Workday from an “outperform” rating to an “inline” rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Workday from $260.00 to $155.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Macquarie Infrastructure reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Workday in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and fifteen have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Workday currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.53.

Workday Trading Up 1.9%

NASDAQ WDAY traded up $2.51 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $132.74. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 13,493,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,744,329. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $184.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $213.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.83. Workday has a 52 week low of $117.76 and a 52 week high of $281.00. The stock has a market cap of $34.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.13.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The software maker reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.32 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Workday had a net margin of 6.95% and a return on equity of 10.50%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.92 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Workday will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Workday

In other Workday news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 82,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.75, for a total value of $17,384,919.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 105,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,034,027.75. This trade represents a 44.10% 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. Also, insider Gerrit S. Kazmaier sold 6,547 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.77, for a total transaction of $1,432,287.19. Following the transaction, the insider owned 111,353 shares in the company, valued at $24,360,695.81. This represents a 5.55% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 370,321 shares of company stock valued at $78,866,401 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Workday by 840.9% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 765,049 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $164,317,000 after purchasing an additional 683,741 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Workday during the 4th quarter valued at $2,518,000. Compound Planning Inc. raised its holdings in Workday by 32.8% during the fourth quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 2,818 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $605,000 after buying an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Workday by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,552,061 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $548,132,000 after buying an additional 166,564 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rare Wolf Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Workday in the fourth quarter valued at $215,000. 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: Q4 beat — Workday reported stronger-than-expected fiscal Q4 results with EPS and revenue above consensus, driven by solid subscription growth and rising backlog, supporting the longer-term growth story. Workday Q4 Earnings Beat
• Positive Sentiment: Bull thesis & catalyst — Management is leaning into agentic AI as a growth catalyst and some firms (e.g., Needham) reaffirm Buy with high price targets, signaling conviction in longer-term upside despite near-term headwinds. Needham Buy Rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro / sector noise — The stock is trading amid broader software/AI-driven volatility; sector sentiment and macro uncertainty are amplifying reactions to guidance rather than fundamentals alone. Market Context
• Negative Sentiment: Guidance miss — Workday guided FY27 subscription revenue below Street estimates (slower new client wins amid corporate spending caution), which triggered an after-hours selloff and renewed investor concern about near-term growth. Reuters: Guidance Below Estimates
• Negative Sentiment: Margin pressure from AI investment — Analysts flagged that accelerated AI spending will compress near-term margins (and operating income guidance disappointed), which weighed on sentiment despite the quarter’s beat. MarketWatch: Cost of Competing in AI
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts and downgrades — Multiple banks trimmed price targets or downgraded WDAY (Piper Sandler, BMO, BTIG, TD Cowen, Evercore, Mizuho, Rosenblatt, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan moves noted), increasing near-term selling pressure and raising uncertainty around consensus estimates. Benzinga: Analyst Activity

Workday Company Profile

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.