Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target Raised to $410.00 at Evercore

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its target price boosted by equities researchers at Evercore from $378.00 to $410.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Evercore’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 11.54% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on WDC. New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Western Digital to $380.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.63.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock traded down $4.95 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $367.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 675,658 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,407,511. The company has a market cap of $124.62 billion, a PE ratio of 37.10, a PEG ratio of 0.86 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $293.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $217.26. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $35.51 and a 12-month high of $380.65.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its 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. 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%.The firm’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.77 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. This trade represents a 7.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were 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 have sold a total of 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,281,000 after acquiring an additional 5,731 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA bought a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter worth approximately $641,000. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd bought a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter worth approximately $34,244,000. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 75.4% during the 4th quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,778,000 after purchasing an additional 4,068 shares during the period. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 399.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,900,000 after purchasing an additional 25,987 shares during the period. 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.