Rosenblatt Securities Lowers Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target to $800.00

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its target price decreased by investment analysts at Rosenblatt Securities from $900.00 to $800.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Rosenblatt Securities’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 54.09% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on WDC. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $560.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, July 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $532.32.

Western Digital Stock Down 5.4%

Western Digital stock opened at $519.17 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $569.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $415.61. The company has a market cap of $178.95 billion, a PE ratio of 31.00 and a beta of 2.14. Western Digital has a twelve month low of $73.14 and a twelve month high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.66 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% 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 808 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the sale, the insider owned 114,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,663,290.57. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 5,093 shares of company stock valued at $2,751,337 over the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WDC. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Avion Wealth lifted its position in Western Digital by 163.8% during the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the period. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Swiss RE Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, BOKF NA lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6,700.0% in the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

More Western Digital News

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital reported adjusted fourth-quarter EPS of $3.56, above the $3.31 consensus estimate, while revenue increased 43.8% year over year to $3.75 billion, also exceeding expectations. Profit more than11-fold from the prior-year quarter. Western Digital Q4 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management said AI customers are negotiating storage capacity agreements extending through 2031, suggesting strong long-term visibility for hard-drive demand tied to data-center expansion. Western Digital Says AI Customers Are Negotiating Storage Deals Through 2031
• Positive Sentiment: Robert W. Baird maintained a Buy rating and raised its price target to $630 from $450, citing AI-supported HDD strength and improving profitability. Western Digital Earns Buy Rating as Analyst Lifts Price Target
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share, payable September 17 to shareholders of record September 8. The approximately 0.1% yield is unlikely to be a major share-price catalyst.
• Negative Sentiment: First-quarter fiscal 2027 guidance calls for EPS of $3.85–$4.15 and revenue of $4.0–$4.2 billion, both above published consensus estimates. However, investors viewed the outlook as disappointing relative to elevated expectations for AI-related growth, triggering declines across storage stocks including SanDisk and Western Digital. Sandisk and Western Digital Drag on Chip Stocks as Lofty Expectations Eclipse Strong Earnings

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.