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Workday (WDAY) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Workday (WDAY - Free Report) closed at $189.29, marking a +1.34% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.47% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.68%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.74%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of human resources software had gained 14.24% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 9.76% and the S&P 500's gain of 7.71% in that time.

WDAY will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 28, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.32, up 14.29% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $776.59 million, up 33.33% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for WDAY. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 1.05% higher. WDAY is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, WDAY is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 116.07. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 53.9, so we one might conclude that WDAY is trading at a premium comparatively.

It is also worth noting that WDAY currently has a PEG ratio of 3.72. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Internet - Software industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.82 as of yesterday's close.

The Internet - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 31, which puts it in the top 13% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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