Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $247.00 to $148.00. The stock had previously closed at $130.23, but opened at $119.56. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Workday shares last traded at $125.9660, with a volume of 5,849,970 shares.

WDAY has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Workday from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on Workday from $220.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Citizens Jmp lowered Workday from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Workday from $280.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Workday from $255.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and fifteen have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Workday has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.19.

Insider Transactions at Workday

In other Workday news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 953 shares of Workday stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.56, for a total value of $199,710.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 35,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,405,012.16. The trade was a 2.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Richard Harry Sauer sold 1,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total transaction of $237,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 85,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,933,580. This represents a 1.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 370,321 shares of company stock valued at $78,866,401. 19.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Workday News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Workday this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat — Workday reported stronger-than-expected Q4 revenue and EPS with subscription growth and margin expansion, a fundamental positive that supports long‑term revenue/unit economics. Workday Q4 Earnings Beat (Zacks)
• Positive Sentiment: Selective analyst support remains — Several firms (Needham, Guggenheim and others) continue Buy/Outperform calls with high price targets, underwriting upside if execution and guidance normalize. Needham Buy Rating (American Banking News)
• Neutral Sentiment: Partnerships and product moves — New offerings such as the Insperity HRScale rollout expand SMB reach but are not game‑changing near term. Insperity HRScale (Yahoo)
• Negative Sentiment: Weak FY27 subscription guidance — Management’s below‑consensus subscription revenue outlook and comments on longer deal timelines triggered the selloff and renewed AI‑disruption concerns. Workday tumbles on dour outlook (Reuters)
• Negative Sentiment: Widespread analyst price‑target cuts and downgrades — A cluster of PT reductions (UBS, Piper Sandler, DA Davidson, Goldman and others) has amplified selling pressure and market uncertainty. Analysts cut forecasts (Benzinga)
• Negative Sentiment: Short interest jumped (~34% month over month) — Rising short activity adds downward pressure and increases volatility risk until sentiment stabilizes.
• Negative Sentiment: Public skepticism and investor headlines — High‑profile critics (including Jim Cramer) questioning Workday’s transition and AI positioning have contributed to negative sentiment. Jim Cramer comments (Yahoo)
• Negative Sentiment: Recent firm‑level downgrades (Citigroup, UBS, Piper Sandler) — New cuts to price targets and neutral/hold stances (including a Citigroup PT reset to $148) sustain selling momentum. Analyst PT changes (Benzinga)

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WDAY. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Workday by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,009,288 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,371,495,000 after buying an additional 3,210,232 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of Workday by 101.4% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,017,905 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,077,537,000 after purchasing an additional 2,525,821 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Workday during the third quarter valued at approximately $556,252,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Workday in the fourth quarter worth approximately $448,804,000. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its position in Workday by 47.5% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,842,491 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,406,463,000 after purchasing an additional 1,882,391 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Workday Stock Performance

The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $181.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $212.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.59 billion, a PE ratio of 53.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 24th. The software maker reported $2.47 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.32 by $0.15. Workday had a return on equity of 13.37% and a net margin of 7.26%.The company had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.92 earnings per share. Workday’s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.