Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Zacks Research

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) was upgraded by Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on WDC. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $720.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Mizuho set a $490.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Argus reduced their price target on Western Digital from $600.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Western Digital from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $591.04.

Western Digital Trading Down 6.8%

Western Digital stock opened at $323.83 on Tuesday. Western Digital has a 1 year low of $132.43 and a 1 year high of $799.87. The company has a market cap of $121.22 billion, a PE ratio of 12.57, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 2.27. The company’s 50-day moving average is $414.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $418.54.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 69.20% and a return on equity of 55.62%. Western Digital’s revenue was up 55.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.78 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 23.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This trade represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total transaction of $481,708.52. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 112,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,650,465.80. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 in the last 90 days. 0.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter worth $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 182.6% in the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 65 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s latest earnings beat expectations, and its second-quarter outlook points to further margin growth. Strong pricing, demand for higher-capacity hard drives, and cloud and AI storage needs are cited as key supports. Western Digital’s Q1 beat and Q2 outlook
• Neutral Sentiment: Some analysts view the recent pullback as a potential buying opportunity given earnings growth and cloud demand, though opinions are tempered by risks. Is the dip a buying opportunity?
• Negative Sentiment: Storage and memory shares sold off amid concerns about memory pricing and uncertainty around the U.S. election, even as the broader tech market rallied. Cautious commentary from a flash-memory maker also pressured the group, with concerns spilling over to WDC despite its hard-drive focus. Sector pressure from election and memory-price worries
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also weighing WDC’s premium valuation and the risk of executing its HAMR hard-drive technology roadmap, which could limit confidence despite strong results. Valuation and execution risks

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.