Western Digital’s (WDC) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

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

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on WDC. Bank of America upped their target price on Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays lifted their price target 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. Finally, Benchmark boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Trading Up 8.6%

Shares of WDC stock opened at $282.58 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $205.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $144.87. Western Digital has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $296.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $95.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.77 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 3,019 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 229.7% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $307,000. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $235,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE boosted its position in Western Digital by 4.3% in the second quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 73,177 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,683,000 after buying an additional 2,988 shares in the last quarter. 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.