Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Raised to “Overweight” at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) was upgraded by research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has a $57.00 target price on the data storage provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $45.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 27.55% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $46.00 price objective on the stock. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Western Digital from $80.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup cut their price objective on Western Digital from $64.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Western Digital from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “underperform” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $65.65.

Western Digital Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $44.69 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $40.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.13. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $81.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The stock has a market cap of $15.54 billion, a PE ratio of 10.64 and a beta of 1.39.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of ($1,465.00) million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 15.68% and a net margin of 9.95%. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was down 33.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 1,659 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.36, for a total transaction of $68,616.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 43,776 shares in the company, valued at $1,810,575.36. This represents a 3.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WDC. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Western Digital by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,459,767 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,531,876,000 after buying an additional 1,439,149 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,745,264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $520,450,000 after acquiring an additional 823,656 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at $352,572,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,592,516 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $273,852,000 after purchasing an additional 881,088 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Western Digital by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,397,671 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $202,603,000 after purchasing an additional 478,269 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.