Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Given New $270.00 Price Target at Rosenblatt Securities

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price objective hoisted by Rosenblatt Securities from $165.00 to $270.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

WDC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday. Wedbush increased their target price on Western Digital from $90.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.76.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $222.97 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $177.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $127.05. The stock has a market cap of $76.23 billion, a PE ratio of 32.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. Western Digital has a 12 month low of $28.83 and a 12 month high of $230.48.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $2.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.72 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 21.37% and a return on equity of 30.89%. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 27.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-2.030 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were paid a $0.125 dividend. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.28%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total value of $3,013,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 645,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,265,422.23. This represents a 3.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total value of $272,272.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785 in the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WDC. 44 Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,329 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,120,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 7.1% during the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 41.5% in the fourth quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 293 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 47.8% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Finally, Pure Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $430,000 after buying an additional 107 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 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.