Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-five analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nineteen have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $173.65.

A number of research firms have recently commented on WDC. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $150.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. China Renaissance assumed coverage on Western Digital in a research report on Friday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price target on the stock. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 31st. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $170.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total value of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. This trade represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total value of $449,756.57. Following the transaction, the insider owned 144,596 shares in the company, valued at $23,217,779.72. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in Western Digital by 8.3% during the first quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 54,161 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,190,000 after buying an additional 4,155 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,933,278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $118,574,000 after acquiring an additional 216,387 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 93.3% during the 1st quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 219,637 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $8,697,000 after acquiring an additional 106,008 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its stake in Western Digital by 0.4% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 107,187 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,334,000 after acquiring an additional 446 shares during the period. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group raised its position in Western Digital by 91.2% in the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,279 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $179.74 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $156.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $108.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.16, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.82. Western Digital has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $188.77.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter. Western Digital had a net margin of 21.37% and a return on equity of 30.89%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 7.28%.

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.