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

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) shares gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $170.00 to $130.00. The stock had previously closed at $130.23, but opened at $119.56. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Workday shares last traded at $125.9660, with a volume of 5,849,970 shares traded.

WDAY has been the topic of several other research reports. Loop Capital set a $280.00 target price on shares of Workday in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Workday in a report on Monday, February 9th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Workday in a report on Wednesday. Barclays cut their price target on Workday from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, BTIG Research dropped their price objective on Workday from $230.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and fifteen have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Workday presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.28.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Carl M. Eschenbach sold 3,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total transaction of $656,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 17,097 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,590,370. This trade represents a 15.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Gerrit S. Kazmaier sold 6,547 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $218.77, for a total transaction of $1,432,287.19. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 111,353 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,360,695.81. This trade represents a 5.55% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 370,321 shares of company stock worth $78,866,401 over the last ninety days. 19.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Workday News

Here are the key news stories impacting Workday this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat consensus — revenue of $2.53B, EPS $2.47 and improved margins, showing solid subscription growth and stronger operating profit that underpins longer-term fundamentals. Workday Announces Fiscal 2026 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: Some analysts and investors still see a buy case — Needham and several boutiques continue to rate WDAY bullish and highlight AI opportunity and institutional accumulation as potential catalysts. Balancing Near-Term Headwinds and AI-Driven Long-Term Upside: Rationale for a Buy Rating
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO sought to calm AI-disruption fears on the call, noting large AI vendors run on Workday’s systems — a credibility point for the platform but one that didn’t reverse the initial selloff. Workday Shares Drop 9% as CEO Says OpenAI, Google Use Its Software
• Negative Sentiment: Management guided FY27 subscription revenue below Wall Street expectations (growth guided down to ~12–13%), stoking concerns that macro weakness and longer deal cycles will slow top-line momentum. That guidance is the primary driver of the selloff. Workday forecasts 2027 annual subscription revenue below estimates
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts aggressively trimmed price targets and issued downgrades after the outlook — examples include UBS to $130 (neutral), Piper Sandler to $135 (neutral) and multiple other cuts; that wave amplifies selling pressure and amplifies headline risk. These Analysts Slash Their Forecasts On Workday After Q4 Results
• Negative Sentiment: Short interest rose sharply in February (≈12.99M shares, ~6.2% of float, up ~34% month-over-month), increasing downside pressure and the potential for outsized moves on intraday sentiment shifts.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Workday

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WDAY. AlphaQuest LLC increased its stake in Workday by 636.7% during the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 1,886 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $453,000 after acquiring an additional 1,630 shares during the last quarter. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co acquired a new position in shares of Workday during the third quarter worth $1,805,000. Phoenix Financial Ltd. acquired a new position in Workday in the 3rd quarter worth $2,000,000. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Workday during the third quarter valued at about $124,718,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Workday during the second quarter worth about $442,702,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Workday Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $35.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.61, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a 50 day moving average of $182.80 and a 200 day moving average of $212.95.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 24th. The software maker reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.32 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 12.93% and a net margin of 7.26%.Workday’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.92 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.