Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Receives $265.58 Average PT from Brokerages

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-four ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $265.5833.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Loop Capital raised their target price on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer 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. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total transaction of $2,743,105.88. Following the transaction, the insider owned 107,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 84,277 shares of company stock valued at $22,091,068 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,698,000 after buying an additional 3,019 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 229.7% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $307,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 78.7% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 208,778 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $13,360,000 after acquiring an additional 91,966 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 2,466 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $158,000 after acquiring an additional 238 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $262.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $88.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $248.03 and its 200 day moving average is $174.53. Western Digital has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $309.90.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.77 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

Western Digital Company Profile

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.