Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target Raised to $380.00 at Morgan Stanley

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price target increased by Morgan Stanley to $380.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Twenty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.83.

Western Digital Trading Up 3.1%

Shares of WDC opened at $304.15 on Monday. Western Digital has a 12 month low of $28.83 and a 12 month high of $319.62. The stock has a market cap of $103.12 billion, a PE ratio of 30.51, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $278.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $202.28.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 8,518 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.32, for a total transaction of $2,174,815.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 99,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,347,148.32. This represents a 7.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. This trade represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $307,000. M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 27.1% during the second quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 16,951 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,085,000 after purchasing an additional 3,615 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CW Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 3.7% during the second quarter. CW Advisors LLC now owns 14,451 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $925,000 after purchasing an additional 520 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.