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

Wedbush reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) in a research note released on Friday,RTT News reports. The brokerage currently has a $95.00 price objective on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Western Digital from $79.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. BNP Paribas lowered their price objective on Western Digital from $95.00 to $90.00 in a report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Western Digital from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Summit Insights lowered shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.71.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC opened at $72.99 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Western Digital has a 1 year low of $46.47 and a 1 year high of $81.55. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $67.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.09. The stock has a market cap of $25.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.94 and a beta of 1.40.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.23. Western Digital had a return on equity of 8.57% and a net margin of 4.81%. The business had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($1.97) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 48.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 6.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, EVP Robert Soderbery sold 30,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.01, for a total value of $2,092,463.67. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 135,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,208,417.98. The trade was a 18.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 658 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.99, for a total transaction of $46,053.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,020,121.37. The trade was a 2.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 185,963 shares of company stock worth $13,154,039. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Western Digital by 241.8% during the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 670 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 4,401 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $300,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 25.4% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 4,916 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $335,000 after purchasing an additional 997 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Western Digital in the first quarter valued at about $8,492,000. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in Western Digital by 338.8% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 234,605 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $15,654,000 after buying an additional 181,141 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Company Profile

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.