Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target Raised to $85.00

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its target price boosted by analysts at Bank of America from $75.00 to $85.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 24.41% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently commented on WDC. TD Cowen increased their target price on Western Digital from $50.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Raymond James raised their target price on Western Digital from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Mizuho raised their target price on Western Digital from $66.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Western Digital from $72.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $73.17.

Western Digital Stock Down 2.6 %

WDC stock opened at $68.32 on Wednesday. Western Digital has a fifty-two week low of $31.97 and a fifty-two week high of $76.92. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $63.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $53.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.67. The company has a market capitalization of $22.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.58 and a beta of 1.57.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported ($0.69) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.30) by $0.61. The company had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3 billion. Western Digital had a negative return on equity of 19.45% and a negative net margin of 19.90%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.69) EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Western Digital will post -2.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $33,225.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 30,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,321,850. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of the 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 30,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,321,850. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 2,648 shares of the 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 directly owns 20,509 shares in the company, valued at $1,434,604.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,579,938 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,020,431,000 after buying an additional 215,207 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Western Digital by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,595,297 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $851,166,000 after acquiring an additional 1,931,325 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 13,361,999 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $609,708,000 after acquiring an additional 870,971 shares during the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS raised its holdings in Western Digital by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 5,587,698 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $292,628,000 after acquiring an additional 443,903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 5,143,795 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $234,711,000 after buying an additional 351,916 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.