Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Wedbush

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by analysts at Wedbush in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $85.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective points to a potential upside of 21.72% from the company’s previous close.

WDC has been the topic of a number of other reports. Raymond James cut shares of Western Digital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday. Benchmark raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $65.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Western Digital Price Performance

Western Digital stock traded up $0.39 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $69.83. 5,434,189 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,984,120. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $32.01 and a 12-month high of $76.92. The company has a market cap of $22.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.75 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $64.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.78.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The data storage provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.42. Western Digital had a negative net margin of 19.90% and a negative return on equity of 19.45%. The business had revenue of $3.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.37 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned ($1.57) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 23.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Western Digital will post -2.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $33,225.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 30,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,321,850. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Western Digital news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $33,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 30,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,321,850. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 2,648 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total value of $185,227.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,509 shares in the company, valued at $1,434,604.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 30.3% during the 4th quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. now owns 103,750 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,433,000 after acquiring an additional 24,100 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Western Digital by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,028,114 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $138,173,000 after purchasing an additional 66,680 shares during the period. Numerai GP LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $884,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,415,000. Finally, Sora Investors LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 441.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sora Investors LLC now owns 325,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $14,830,000 after buying an additional 265,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells data storage devices and solutions in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, rest of Asia, and internationally. It offers client devices, including hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) for desktop and notebook personal computers (PCs), gaming consoles, and set top boxes; and flash-based embedded storage products for mobile phones, tablets, notebook PCs, and other portable and wearable devices, as well as automotive, Internet of Things, industrial, and connected home applications.