Bank of America Increases Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target to $415.00

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its target price raised by stock analysts at Bank of America from $375.00 to $415.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 12.09% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also commented on WDC. UBS Group set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.29.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $370.24 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $125.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.28, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $291.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $214.20. Western Digital has a one year low of $35.51 and a one year high of $368.40.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.Western Digital’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 0.8% during the 4th 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 grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,982 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $341,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 19.4% during the fourth quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 369 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC raised its stake in Western Digital by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC now owns 889 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $153,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.