Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) Short Interest Up 21.0% in April

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,900,000 shares, an increase of 21.0% from the March 31st total of 4,050,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,840,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days.

Workday Price Performance

Shares of WDAY opened at $244.73 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.61 billion, a PE ratio of 47.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.27 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.97. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $271.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $264.80. Workday has a 1-year low of $174.25 and a 1-year high of $311.28.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 26th. The software maker reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.10. Workday had a return on equity of 4.87% and a net margin of 19.02%. The business had revenue of $1.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.14) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Workday will post 1.76 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Workday from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Workday from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Workday from $310.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded Workday from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, TheStreet raised Workday from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $293.61.

Insider Activity at Workday

In related news, insider Douglas A. Robinson sold 3,121 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $293.79, for a total value of $916,918.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 165,932 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,749,162.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 56,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.95, for a total value of $15,509,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,011,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $279,996,450. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Douglas A. Robinson sold 3,121 shares of Workday stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.79, for a total value of $916,918.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 165,932 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,749,162.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 435,691 shares of company stock valued at $117,731,569. Insiders own 21.09% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Workday

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Beacon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Workday by 333.3% in the fourth quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Workday by 215.4% in the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 123 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC acquired a new stake in Workday during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in Workday by 1,750.0% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 111 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Workday by 74.2% in the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 115 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the period. 89.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.