Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Hits New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $314.92 and last traded at $313.81, with a volume of 13891182 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $286.21.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Argus set a $300.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Trading Up 9.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company’s 50 day moving average is $257.20 and its 200 day moving average is $181.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $106.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.48, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.75.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. This trade represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $791,317,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $221,800,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage devices and systems for personal, enterprise and cloud applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company develops hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), NAND flash components and finished storage products used in PCs, external storage, servers, network-attached storage (NAS) and embedded systems.

Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial markets, including internal and external HDDs and SSDs, removable flash memory products and storage platforms for data center and enterprise environments.