Workday Inc. could be primed well for its coming earnings report, according to an analyst.
Deutsche Bank analyst Brad Zelnick opened a bullish short-term catalyst call on the stock Tuesday, ahead of Workday’s
WDAY,
-1.96%
next earnings report, which is scheduled for Feb. 27, after the closing bell. He expects “healthy” results for the fiscal fourth quarter.
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Zelnick wrote that his conversations with industry partners suggest that the company is doing well with “medium enterprise” businesses and seeing “purely incremental” demand from a number of customers. Among this base, Workday appears to be winning accounts with fewer than 500 employees.
Additionally, he sees signs of “healthy deal activity, including some megadeals,” within large-enterprise clients. He called out wins in key categories like financial services and professional services.
Zelnick noted that he has less visibility into Workday’s international business, “though what we’ve been hearing more generally sounds positive relative to modest expectations embedded in Street models.”
Read: Workday to cut 3% of jobs amid a restructuring
Despite his short-term buy call on the stock ahead of the earnings report, he kept a hold rating on the stock over a longer span. Zelnick has a $195 target price on the stock, which was down 1.8% in midday trading Tuesday to a recent $182.41.
Workday shares have declined 15% over the past 12 months as the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-1.68%
has lost about 8%.
