Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target Raised to $86.00

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price target upped by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $83.00 to $86.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 23.85% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on WDC. TD Cowen raised their price target on Western Digital from $50.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Benchmark raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $65.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised shares of Western Digital from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.75.

Western Digital Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of WDC opened at $69.44 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.74 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Western Digital has a one year low of $32.01 and a one year high of $76.92. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.78.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The data storage provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.42. The business had revenue of $3.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.37 billion. Western Digital had a negative return on equity of 19.45% and a negative net margin of 19.90%. Western Digital’s revenue was up 23.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($1.57) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital will post -2.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $33,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 30,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,321,850. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $33,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 30,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,321,850. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 2,648 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total transaction of $185,227.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 20,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,434,604.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new position in Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Naples Money Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new position in Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 121.7% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 614 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 337 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.