Workday has pulled back 3.6% to $197.45 since Monday. The stock is up 23% over the past month. Now the Street is split on whether that rally has run its course.
Freedom Broker downgraded WDAY to Hold on August 28 — even while raising its target to $200. That captures the tension neatly. The stock has already reached the new target.
The broader post-earnings analyst response was constructive. Wells Fargo lifted its target to $225. RBC Capital went to $240. Barclays raised to $224. Citigroup moved from $139 to $201. Bernstein pushed to $238. All maintained existing ratings. Goldman Sachs raised its target to $164 but held Neutral. Stifel moved from $115 to $160, also staying at Hold.
The consensus stands at 12 Buy ratings against 18 Holds. Most price targets now cluster well above the current $197.45 price — but the Hold-heavy rating distribution suggests the Street sees the risk/reward as balanced rather than compelling.
The put/call ratio dropped to 0.84 on August 31. That is 2.8 standard deviations below its 20-day mean of 0.99. Options positioning has swung sharply toward calls since the August 27 earnings beat, when the stock jumped 7.3% on the day.
The 52-week low on the PCR stands at 0.60. Current levels are not at that extreme. But the direction is clear — options buyers are not hedging aggressively.
SI has fallen to 8.3% of the free float. That is down 40% over the past month. The covering wave began when the Silver Lake take-private story emerged in mid-August and accelerated through the earnings print.
Borrow conditions offer nothing to force the remaining shorts out. Availability stands at 867% of current short interest — ample lending pool, no mechanical pressure. Cost to borrow is just 0.52%. The ORTEX short score sits at 50.1, squarely neutral.
Bears who remain are not cornered. They are making a deliberate valuation call.
The next earnings date is November 27. Between now and then, the stock's relationship to analyst price targets is the key variable. At $197.45, WDAY trades below most bull-case targets but already above several Hold-rated targets. That gap — between where bulls see fair value and where Hold-rated analysts drew their lines — defines the range the market is now navigating.
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