Van ECK Associates Corp Raises Stock Holdings in Workday, Inc. $WDAY

Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) by 10.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,559,835 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 144,833 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Workday were worth $335,021,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Workday in the second quarter worth $25,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Workday in the third quarter worth $26,000. JPL Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Workday in the third quarter worth $30,000. DT Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Workday in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Workday in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. 89.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Workday news, insider Gerrit S. Kazmaier sold 9,356 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.39, for a total value of $1,201,216.84. Following the transaction, the insider 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 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, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 107,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.76, for a total value of $13,949,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 105,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,631,158.24. This represents a 50.58% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 774,814 shares of company stock valued at $102,709,316. Company insiders own 18.64% of the company’s stock.

Workday Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:WDAY opened at $130.80 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $32.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.88, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. Workday, Inc. has a 1 year low of $110.36 and a 1 year high of $249.85. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $128.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $160.02.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The software maker reported $2.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.51 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 14.75% and a net margin of 8.60%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.23 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Monday, May 18th. DA Davidson set a $135.00 target price on Workday in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. William Blair raised Workday to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $216.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Loop Capital set a $210.00 target price on Workday in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $185.03.

About Workday

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.