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Workday Headquarters Building
Workday’s headquarters building in Pleasanton, California

Workday rallies on positive comments from new investor Elliott, buyback boost, and analyst upgrade

The HR tech giant is winning Wall Street’s support as the company refreshes its growth playbook.

Nia Warfield

Workday shares jumped 8% Wednesday morning, leading S&P 500 gainers, as a slew of positive news pumped up the stock.

Activist investor Elliott Management revealed a $2 billion stake in the HR software giant, making it one of Workday’s largest shareholders. The firm praised the company’s leadership and strategy as signs of “substantial long-term value creation” for investors.

Adding to the momentum, Workday’s board authorized another $4 billion in share repurchases, bringing its total buyback plan to $5 billion through fiscal 2027. The company still has about $1.2 billion left from previous authorizations. Meanwhile, Piper Sandler bumped Workday up to “neutral” from “underweight” and lifted its price target to $235 from $220.

The firm cited the recent Workday Rising conference, saying the company has been leaning hard into AI by snapping up three startups in just the past month (Sana, Paradox, and Flowise). Workday also rolled out a new data cloud that plugs directly into Databricks, Snowflake, and Salesforce, giving it more reach in enterprise data.

Despite todays lift, Workday shares are still down about 6% year to date.

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United Airlines rallies after Q4 earnings and Q1 profit guidance top estimates

Shares of United Airlines are rising after the bell on Tuesday, following the release of the carrier’s fourth-quarter and full-year earnings report.

United posted adjusted earnings per share of $3.10 in Q4, above the $2.92 per share expected by Wall Street analysts polled by Bloomberg. Sales of $15.4 billion were roughly in line with the consensus estimate.

The airline also:

  • Forecast full-year earnings per share between $12 and $14, bracketing Wall Street’s call for $13.04. For Q1, management sees EPS between $1.00 and $1.50, the midpoint of which is above the $1.16 expected by Wall Street.

  • Booked $13.93 billion in passenger revenue on the quarter, up nearly 5% year over year.

“Strong revenue momentum has continued into 2026,” according the company’s press release. “The week ending January 4th was the highest flown revenue week in United history, and the week ending January 11th was the highest ticketing week and the highest week for business sales in United history.”

UAL’s premium ticket revenue climbed 9% compared to a 7% increase in basic economy revenue. The “K-shaped economy” has become increasingly visible in travel trends at major US airlines. Last week, Delta’s revenue from first-class and business passengers eclipsed its main cabin revenue for the first time.

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POET Technologies nears multiyear high on strong call demand after flagship product wins award

POET Technologies is surging on heavy volumes and high call demand after announcing that it won a Product Innovation Award at China’s Infostone awards.

The honor went to the optical communications company’s flagship product, the Teralight, which uses light to move data between chips.

“Unveiled less than a year ago at the 2025 OFC Conference, POET Teralight has driven commercial interest in the Company because of its highly integrated design and complete optical system-on-chip architecture that simplifies module development,” per the press release.

This award may be the latest excuse to buy the stock, which is up over 40% year to date.

Call activity is elevated, with nearly 37,000 having changed hands as of 10:55 a.m. ET, well above the 20-day average of 28,030 for a full session. Shares are approaching their multi-year high of $9.41.

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