William Blair analyst Justin Furby says his recent channel work leads him to believe that Workday (WDAY) recently closed a core human resources deal with Accenture (ACN). If correct, "this would be an important transaction for a number of reasons," Furby tells investors in a research note titled "A Deal That Will Turn Heads; We Believe Workday Signed Accenture." First, Accenture is a massive company with close to 500,000 employees globally, the analyst writes. Second, Accenture is a "massive influencer in enterprise technology buying cycles," Furby adds. And third, the analyst says it is his understanding that Accenture signed a cloud HR deal with SAP (SAP) Employee Central in mid-2016, which he heard was "plagued with challenges." Furby concludes that if in fact Workday landed this deal, he has additional conviction in the company reported upside in Q4. Further, a deal of this type is bigger than any one quarter, and likely has ramifications for quarters to come, Furby notes. The analyst keeps an Outperform rating on Workday. He also views the news as "another sign of SAP's weakening position in HR." Following William Blair's research note, Workday is up 6%, or $10.15, to $182.77 in premarket trading.

Berenberg raised the firm's price target on SAP to EUR 195 from EUR 190 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares.

IBM (IBM) is scheduled to report results of its fiscal first quarter after the market close on April 24, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET. What to watch... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

HSBC raised the firm's price target on SAP to EUR 200 from EUR 180 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The company's Q1 report was "solid even if not spectacular" as it sees continued strong momentum, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says SAP's long-term revenue growth prospects are supported by a shift to cloud combined with monetization of its artificial intelligence opportunity.

Barclays lowered the firm's price target on SAP to $210 from $212 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares post the Q1 report. SAP is well positioned for artificial intelligence, but the near-term financial impact is likely to be limited, while any restructuring creep should drive further EBIT upside, files to sell common stock, no amount given