UBS Group Raises Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target to $80.00

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price target raised by UBS Group from $65.00 to $80.00 in a research note released on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on WDC. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Western Digital from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set an outperform rating and a $80.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $58.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. StockNews.com cut shares of Western Digital from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $50.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $73.17.

Western Digital Trading Down 2.6 %

Shares of WDC opened at $68.32 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $63.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $53.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.67. The company has a market capitalization of $22.26 billion, a PE ratio of -9.58 and a beta of 1.57. Western Digital has a fifty-two week low of $31.97 and a fifty-two week high of $76.92.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported ($0.69) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.30) by $0.61. The business had revenue of $3.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3 billion. Western Digital had a negative return on equity of 19.45% and a negative net margin of 19.90%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.69) EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Western Digital will post -2.31 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $33,225.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 30,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,321,850. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $33,225.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 30,958 shares in the company, valued at $2,321,850. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 2,648 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total transaction of $185,227.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 20,509 shares in the company, valued at $1,434,604.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,579,938 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,020,431,000 after acquiring an additional 215,207 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Western Digital by 9.3% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,595,297 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $851,166,000 after purchasing an additional 1,931,325 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its position in Western Digital by 7.0% in the third quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 13,361,999 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $609,708,000 after purchasing an additional 870,971 shares in the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in Western Digital by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 5,587,698 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $292,628,000 after acquiring an additional 443,903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in Western Digital by 7.3% in the third quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 5,143,795 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $234,711,000 after acquiring an additional 351,916 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells data storage devices and solutions in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, rest of Asia, and internationally. It offers client devices, including hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) for desktop and notebook personal computers (PCs), gaming consoles, and set top boxes; and flash-based embedded storage products for mobile phones, tablets, notebook PCs, and other portable and wearable devices, as well as automotive, Internet of Things, industrial, and connected home applications.