Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) Receives $87.71 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and sixteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $87.71.

WDC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, November 29th. BNP Paribas cut their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $95.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group cut their price target on Western Digital from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Western Digital from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $92.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 25th.

Western Digital Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $68.82 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.93. Western Digital has a 52 week low of $48.39 and a 52 week high of $81.55. The stock has a market cap of $23.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.48 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted 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 analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned ($1.97) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 48.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Western Digital will post 6.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, EVP Robert Soderbery sold 30,767 shares of Western Digital 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 directly owns 135,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,208,417.98. The trade was a 18.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 658 shares of the 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 owns 28,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,020,121.37. This represents a 2.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 184,107 shares of company stock valued at $13,042,381 over the last 90 days. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Synovus Financial Corp grew 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 purchasing an additional 1,591 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 22,670 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $183,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 13.2% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $720,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.