Category Archives: oud

Workday Financial Software Heading For ‘Success’; Stock Gains Again

Building momentum from a week of positive trade, cloud software developer Workday ’s ( WDAY ) stock gained another 1% Friday morning — nearly 8% for the week — after FBR Capital Markets satisfied itself that Workday’s financial software may “achieve the same level of success as (or greater than) its HCM (human capital management) product suite.” In a research note issued Friday, FBR analyst Samad Samana said that he visited Workday’s Pleasanton, Calif., headquarters in Silicon Valley this week and cornered Betsy Bland, vice president of financial management products, and Robynne Sisco, chief accounting officer, who let him “dig deeper into what we have found to be the single most important issue on investors’ minds.” The issue: Will Workday’s financial software do great? “We walked away more confident that the financials business is positioned to have a strong (fiscal 2017) as the product suite has improved significantly, more WDAY reps are now selling financials, a critical mass of live customers is providing positive references for potential customers, and the willingness to adopt cloud-based financials has increased,” Samana said. Investors responded by pushing Workday stock up 2% to 78.34 before easing back to a 1.6% gain above 78 by midday in the  stock market today . On Wednesday, Workday stock broke out of a 12-week, first-stage cup-with-handle base with a 75.60 buy point. Workday competes against no shortage of rivals, including SAP ( SAP ), Salesforce.com ( CRM ) and legacy software developer Oracle ( ORCL ). Salesforce stock was up 1.6% to 74.98 at midday Friday, and Oracle was up fractionally at 40.96. But SAP stock was down 0.8% to 79.74. Samana said he learned that Workday had added more than 45 financial software customers in the fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 31, “the most ever in a single quarter.” At 207 financial customers, it’s more than double the base of a year before. For Q4, Workday earnings beat Wall Street views, but its Q1 revenue outlook missed estimates. For fiscal Q1, ending in April, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Workday to lose an adjusted two cents per share minus items, flat with a year earlier, on revenue up 35% to $339 million. Workday went public in October 2012, priced at 28.

Regeneron Soars After Drug Clears Eczema, Sparks Market Size Debate

Big biotech Regeneron Pharmaceuticals ( REGN ) and its big pharma partner Sanofi ( SNY ) said Friday that their potential blockbuster eczema drug candidate sailed through late-stage trials and would be submitted for approval in Q3 of this year. Regeneron shares spiked Friday, headed for their best one-day percentage gain in years. Regeneron’s and Sanofi’s drug dupilumab cleared or nearly cleared the symptoms of atopic dermatitis (eczema) in more than a third of patients, compared with less than 10% of patients in the placebo group, in two clinical trials comprising a total of 1,379 people. Patients on dupilumab in general average around a 70% improvement in the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI), whereas the placebo group improved in the 30% to 40% range. “There are no approved systemic therapies in the U.S. for people with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis, underscoring the clear unmet need,” Sanofi R&D head Elias Zerhouni said in a statement. “In the U.S., where dupilumab in AD (atopic dermatitis) has been granted Breakthrough Therapy designation by the U.S. FDA, we plan to submit a regulatory application in the third quarter of this year and will work to bring this innovative therapy to patients as quickly as possible.” Evercore ISI analyst Mark Schoenebaum wrote that analysts’ consensus peak annual sales estimate for dupilumab is $4 billion, but there’s quite a bit of variation between individual analysts. “We believe that the current debate for dupilumab is focused on the size of commercial opportunity — it is also in late stage studies for severe asthma (where dupilumab demonstrated high efficacy in phase two in an all-comers population) as well as chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps and eosinophilic esophagitis,” Schoenebaum wrote in an email to clients. “A/D is a relatively new market segment and dupilumab is one of the first therapeutic candidates that could address the high unmet need. … The commercial opportunity in severe asthma may be similarly attractive; however, dupilumab will be facing a more crowded competitive landscape in asthma.” Regeneron shares shot up 13.5% in afternoon trading on the stock market today  to about 409, moving over its 50-day moving average for the first time in 2016. Regeneron stock touched a 17-month low below 349 on March 17. Sanofi stock rose a fraction, above 40.

Microsoft Stock Gets Price Target Hike From Build Conference News

Microsoft ( MSFT ) demonstrated some impressive tech innovations at its Build conference this week in San Francisco, earning its stock a price target hike Friday from investment bank Cowen. Cowen analyst Gregg Moskowitz raised his price target on Microsoft stock to 59 from 57, but maintained his market perform rating based on valuation. Microsoft was down a fraction near 55 in early afternoon trading on the stock market today . “The level of innovation on display (at Build) was impressive, and updated metrics showed good progress,” Moskowitz said. “Still, at this valuation, significant further multiple expansion continues to look challenging to us.” The technology shown at the three-day Build conference, which ends Friday, is unlikely to have an impact on the company near term, he said. “Even by the standards of developer conferences, we found this year’s Build to be particularly forward-focused, with a slew of previews and (software development kits) made available for innovative new products and services, such as HoloLens, chat bots, and voice/image recognition AI,” Moskowitz said. “While there was little on display this week that is likely to have a meaningful impact on Microsoft’s financials in the near term, investors can take heart that the company under (CEO) Satya Nadella’s leadership has become a genuine thought leader, with the potential to create new platform categories around its fast growing Azure cloud. Thus, we came away from the event feeling incrementally more positive about the company’s future.” On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that its Windows 10 operating system is now on 270 million devices worldwide, up from 200 million at the end of January. Microsoft wants the OS to be on 1 billion devices by its fiscal 2018. The Redmond, Wash.-based company also said its Azure cloud computing platform now has 30 data center locations globally, up from 19 last year. Cowen’s report follows bullish notes on Microsoft Wednesday and Thursday from Pacific Crest Securities, RBC Capital Markets and Raymond James.