Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Reaches New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

by · The Cerbat Gem

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock to $405.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Western Digital traded as high as $351.87 and last traded at $350.16, with a volume of 5390681 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $343.43.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, UBS Group set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $288.33.

View Our Latest Analysis on WDC

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Key Western Digital News

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Partners LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its stake in Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its stake in Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $124.16 billion, a PE ratio of 36.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company’s 50 day moving average is $287.43 and its 200-day moving average is $212.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.

Western Digital Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

Further Reading