Citigroup Raises Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target to $325.00

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price objective boosted by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $280.00 to $325.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 18.18% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $306.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday. Susquehanna upped their price target on Western Digital from $135.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $253.29.

Western Digital Stock Up 9.9%

WDC traded up $24.78 during trading on Monday, reaching $275.01. 10,898,272 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,274,319. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $193.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $137.60. 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 stock has a market cap of $94.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.79. Western Digital has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $285.42.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.77 earnings per share. Western Digital’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 447 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.00, for a total transaction of $102,363.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 143,318 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,819,822. This represents a 0.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. This represents a 31.79% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 6,816 shares of company stock worth $1,102,348 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. Avion Wealth boosted its stake in Western Digital by 163.8% in the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Concord Wealth Partners acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% during the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the period. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. 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.