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

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Wedbush in a research report issued on Friday,RTT News reports. They currently have a $95.00 price objective on the data storage provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 29.71% from the stock’s current price.

WDC has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Western Digital from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $94.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Western Digital from $79.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Western Digital from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.71.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ WDC traded up $1.74 on Friday, hitting $73.24. 1,620,491 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,068,025. The company has a market capitalization of $25.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.08 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $66.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.11. Western Digital has a 52-week low of $46.47 and a 52-week high of $81.55.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($1.97) earnings per share. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 48.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Western Digital will post 6.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David Goeckeler sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.58, for a total transaction of $5,443,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 821,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,633,905.40. This represents a 8.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.99, for a total value of $46,053.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,020,121.37. This trade represents a 2.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 185,963 shares of company stock valued at $13,154,039. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 20.0% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 9,562 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $653,000 after buying an additional 1,591 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 123.5% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 41,028 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,802,000 after buying an additional 22,670 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the third quarter worth $183,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 13.2% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 20,285 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,348,000 after buying an additional 2,371 shares during the period. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the third quarter worth $720,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.