Western Digital’s (WDC) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Wedbush

Wedbush reissued their outperform rating on shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) in a research report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $325.00 price objective on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also commented on WDC. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Loop Capital increased their price objective on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 16th. TD Cowen upped their price target on Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, China Renaissance assumed coverage on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $273.74 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.81 billion, a PE ratio of 27.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $212.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $148.64. Western Digital has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $296.50.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $1,833,922.20. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 136,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,932,163.62. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth about $384,000. Atlanta Consulting Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $277,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Western Digital by 3,497.2% in the fourth quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,209 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,448,000 after buying an additional 13,814 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co bought a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $443,000. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 11,090 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,910,000 after acquiring an additional 1,757 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Company Profile

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.