Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY) has experienced an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are a multitude of gauges market participants can use to analyze the equity markets. Two of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the elite hedge fund managers can trounce the market by a superb amount (see just how much).
Equally as important, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the world of equities. Just as you’d expect, there are a variety of incentives for a bullish insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but just one, very obvious reason why they would initiate a purchase. Several academic studies have demonstrated the market-beating potential of this strategy if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).
With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a glance at the recent action surrounding Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY).
What does the smart money think about Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY)?
Heading into Q2, a total of 25 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 9% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s capital changing hands, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings substantially.
When looking at the hedgies we track, John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital had the largest position in Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY), worth close to $79.1 million, comprising 1% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital, with a $60.4 million position; the fund has 0.3% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include David Goel and Paul Ferri’s Matrix Capital Management, Eric Chen’s Antipodean Advisors and Christopher Lord’s Criterion Capital.
As aggregate interest increased, some big names have been driving this bullishness. JAT Capital Management, managed by John Thaler, created the biggest position in Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY). JAT Capital Management had 23.4 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management also initiated a $13.9 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new WDAY investors: Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, and Scott Fine and Peter Richards’s Empire Capital Management.
How have insiders been trading Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY)?
Insider purchases made by high-level executives is particularly usable when the company in question has seen transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and 4 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY). These stocks are BMC Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:BMC), F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV), CA, Inc. (NASDAQ:CA), Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX), and Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT). This group of stocks are in the application software industry and their market caps are closest to WDAY’s market cap.
