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Wedbush downgrades Workday post-earnings on Oracle fears; others defend

Nov. 20, 2015 3:56 PM ETOracle Corporation (ORCL) StockORCL, WDAYBy: Eric Jhonsa, SA News Editor
  • "We think it’s reasonable to surmise that Oracle’s (NYSE:ORCL) push to blunt Workday’s (WDAY -1.4%) momentum in its PeopleSoft base is having some impact, or at least lengthening Workday’s sales cycles as per our integrator checks," writes Wedbush's Steve Koenig, downgrading the cloud HR/financials software leader to Neutral after it offered light FQ4 guidance to go with an FQ3 beat. His target has been cut by $15 to $84.
  • Koenig, whose remarks come six months after Jefferies reported Oracle is pricing aggressively against Workday, also calls FQ3 revenue (though above consensus) "somewhat disappointing," and notes subscription revenue growth has dropped to 48% Y/Y from Q1's 63%. He adds Workday has been offering more flexible payment terms to counter Oracle, and that this is expected to "result in a three-point headwind to fourth-quarter subscription revenue and five points next year," before normalizing in FY18 (ends Jan. '18).
  • William Blair's Justin Furby (Outperform) is less troubled by Workday's FQ4 outlook, noting the subscription shortfall is solely the result of payment term changes and that management often guides conservatively. He adds Workday originally guided for "no more than 40%" FY16 sales growth, and is now on track to post 47%+ growth.
  • On its earnings call (transcript), Workday said it's "building our investment and hiring models assuming total revenue growth of above 30% for fiscal 2017." Consensus is for 37.2% growth.
  • Drexel Hamilton's Brian White (Buy) is pleased with growing financials software traction, as well as the recent unveiling of several other apps (Learning, Planning, Payroll, Insight Applications). Wunderlich's Rob Breza (Hold) isn't as impressed. "Conf.call highlights focused on the Financials offering, with ~90 customers live vs. 80 in the prior quarter, which is likely to leave investors feeling uninspired. Investors are left waiting for meaningful Financials acceleration to offset the HCM deceleration as new HCM products reach [general availability] in 2H16."

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