Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday morning.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Argus set a $300.00 target price on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.83.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ WDC opened at $304.15 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $103.12 billion, a PE ratio of 30.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.77. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $278.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $202.28. Western Digital has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $319.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 8,518 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider directly owned 99,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,347,148.32. The trade was a 7.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WDC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Western Digital by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,196,484,000 after purchasing an additional 243,177 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP grew its stake in Western Digital by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $354,247,000 after purchasing an additional 431,419 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth $788,729,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Western Digital by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.