Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Hits New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $333.65 and last traded at $346.04, with a volume of 252354 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $311.96.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WDC. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Western Digital to $380.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Mizuho lifted their target price on Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, UBS Group set a $306.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.83.

Western Digital Stock Up 10.6%

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $280.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $203.72. The company has a market cap of $116.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.66, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.77. 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 (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted 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 return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 8,518 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.32, for a total value of $2,174,815.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 99,276 shares in the company, valued at $25,347,148.32. The trade was a 7.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Avion Wealth lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 163.8% during the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Swiss RE Ltd. acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. ORG Partners LLC lifted its stake 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 position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 551.4% during the third 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.