Bank of America Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price objective boosted by Bank of America from $610.00 to $732.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 14.60% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on WDC. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price target on Western Digital and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $493.52.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC stock opened at $638.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $529.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $352.48. Western Digital has a 52-week low of $62.94 and a 52-week high of $799.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.13 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at $63,640,420.80. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total transaction of $2,071,470.06. Following the transaction, the insider owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 3,019 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in Western Digital by 229.7% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in Western Digital by 55.3% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $152,000 after purchasing an additional 845 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

About Western Digital

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.