Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Earns Outperform Rating from Wedbush

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Wedbush in a research note issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $85.00 target price on the data storage provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price target suggests a potential upside of 19.11% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Raymond James downgraded Western Digital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. TD Cowen increased their price target on Western Digital from $50.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. StockNews.com downgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Susquehanna increased their price target on Western Digital from $68.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Western Digital from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.25.

Western Digital Price Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $71.36 on Friday. Western Digital has a 12 month low of $32.01 and a 12 month high of $76.92. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $65.08 and its 200-day moving average is $55.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The company has a market capitalization of $23.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.36 and a beta of 1.57.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The data storage provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.42. Western Digital had a negative return on equity of 13.67% and a negative net margin of 12.87%. The company had revenue of $3.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($1.57) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Western Digital will post -2.21 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 2,648 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total value of $185,227.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,434,604.55. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 2,648 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total transaction of $185,227.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 20,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,434,604.55. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $33,225.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 30,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,321,850. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,579,938 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,020,431,000 after acquiring an additional 215,207 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 870,971 shares during the period. DNB Asset Management AS grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 443,903 shares during the period. Kodai Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at about $212,900,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,268,764 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,154,000 after buying an additional 92,009 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Western Digital

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.