Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Hits New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $333.65 and last traded at $346.04, with a volume of 252354 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $311.96.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Twenty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.83.

Western Digital Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $116.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.77. The company’s 50 day moving average is $280.07 and its 200-day moving average is $203.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its 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. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. Western Digital’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued 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 currently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total transaction of $2,743,105.88. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. This trade represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Western Digital by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 4,707 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $811,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $346,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,982 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $341,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 369 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC now owns 889 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $153,000 after acquiring an additional 60 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.