Investors Buy High Volume of Call Options on Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)

Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders purchased 24,530 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 21% compared to the typical volume of 20,222 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Western Digital from $81.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. BNP Paribas lowered their target price on shares of Western Digital from $95.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays dropped their price target on Western Digital from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Robert Soderbery sold 30,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.01, for a total value of $2,092,463.67. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 658 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 28,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,020,121.37. This represents a 2.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 109,107 shares of company stock valued at $7,768,381. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Aigen Investment Management LP raised its stake in Western Digital by 124.2% during the 3rd quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP now owns 21,412 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,462,000 after acquiring an additional 11,860 shares during the last quarter. Avala Global LP raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 49.0% during the 3rd quarter. Avala Global LP now owns 1,147,700 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $78,376,000 after buying an additional 377,500 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 19.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 291,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $19,925,000 after purchasing an additional 47,965 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Western Digital by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 277,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $18,917,000 after buying an additional 27,849 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 137.9% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 43,575 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,976,000 after acquiring an additional 25,262 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Trading Up 1.8 %

NASDAQ WDC opened at $68.63 on Thursday. Western Digital has a 52 week low of $52.77 and a 52 week high of $81.55. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $65.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.73 billion, a PE ratio of 40.37 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($1.97) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 48.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Western Digital will post 6.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.