Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Given Overweight Rating at Cantor Fitzgerald

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating restated by stock analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $95.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 32.87% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Western Digital from $89.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $100.00 to $93.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Benchmark downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $70.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $82.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.42.

Western Digital Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of WDC stock opened at $71.50 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $64.60 and a 200-day moving average of $65.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $52.77 and a 12-month high of $81.55. The firm has a market cap of $24.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.02 and a beta of 1.44.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.91 by ($0.36). Western Digital had a return on equity of 15.68% and a net margin of 9.95%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 658 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.99, for a total transaction of $46,053.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,020,121.37. This represents a 2.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at $352,572,000. AMF Tjanstepension AB acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at $94,181,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,459,767 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,531,876,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439,149 shares during the period. Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at $68,950,000. Finally, Atalan Capital Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at $62,612,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.