Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Earns Outperform Rating from Wedbush

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Wedbush in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $325.00 target price on the data storage provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price target indicates a potential upside of 15.01% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 31st. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $282.58 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $205.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $144.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $296.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708 in the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Avion Wealth raised its position in Western Digital by 163.8% during the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Concord Wealth Partners acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 551.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust bought a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $30,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage devices and systems for personal, enterprise and cloud applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company develops hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), NAND flash components and finished storage products used in PCs, external storage, servers, network-attached storage (NAS) and embedded systems.

Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial markets, including internal and external HDDs and SSDs, removable flash memory products and storage platforms for data center and enterprise environments.