Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its target price lifted by Morgan Stanley to $380.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective points to a potential upside of 23.60% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on WDC. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Argus set a $300.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, UBS Group set a $306.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Twenty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.83.

Western Digital Price Performance

NASDAQ WDC traded up $12.47 on Monday, reaching $307.44. 2,633,387 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,861,554. Western Digital has a 12 month low of $28.83 and a 12 month high of $319.62. The company has a market cap of $104.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.87, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.77. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $277.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $200.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $3.02 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.77 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WDC. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 124.5% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% in the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.