Lazard Asset Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)

Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) by 49.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 53,212 shares of the software maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,584 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Workday were worth $13,730,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Simplicity Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Workday by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC now owns 1,277 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $330,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Workday by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 966 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $249,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC raised its stake in shares of Workday by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC now owns 1,412 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $364,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Workday by 19.4% during the fourth quarter. AllSquare Wealth Management LLC now owns 252 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its position in Workday by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 2,889 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $745,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 497 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total transaction of $112,595.35. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 34,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,789,921.75. The trade was a 1.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 81,275 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.68, for a total value of $17,448,117.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 102,997 shares in the company, valued at $22,111,395.96. This trade represents a 44.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 321,724 shares of company stock valued at $77,976,126. Corporate insiders own 19.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDAY has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Westpark Capital initiated coverage on Workday in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $315.00 price objective for the company. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Workday in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Workday from $287.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on Workday in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Workday from $290.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Workday presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $293.62.

Workday Stock Performance

Workday stock opened at $270.02 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $238.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $252.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.83 billion, a PE ratio of 44.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a current ratio of 2.05. Workday, Inc. has a one year low of $199.81 and a one year high of $294.00.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The software maker reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.75 by ($1.27). The company had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 6.13% and a net margin of 19.86%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Workday Company Profile

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.