Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $129.34, but opened at $124.81. Workday shares last traded at $126.0950, with a volume of 913,714 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDAY has been the topic of several analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on shares of Workday from $298.00 to $214.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of Workday from $250.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Workday from $200.00 to $135.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on shares of Workday from $265.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.42.

Workday Price Performance

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $126.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $171.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.04.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The software maker reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. Workday had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 13.37%. Workday’s revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.92 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.22, for a total value of $769,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 217,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,942,984.60. This represents a 2.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 Gerrit S. Kazmaier sold 9,356 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.39, for a total transaction of $1,201,216.84. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 165,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,193,850.86. This represents a 5.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 989,814 shares of company stock worth $131,576,291. Company insiders own 18.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Workday

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDAY. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Workday during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC acquired a new position in Workday in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. JPL Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Workday in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. DT Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in Workday in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in Workday in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.