Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Tuesday,Zacks reports.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on WDC. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $720.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Argus reduced their price target on shares of Western Digital from $600.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald decreased their price target on Western Digital from $900.00 to $625.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.04.

Western Digital Trading Down 6.8%

Western Digital stock opened at $323.83 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $121.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 2.27. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $414.74 and a 200-day moving average of $418.54. Western Digital has a 52 week low of $132.43 and a 52 week high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.11 by $0.53. The business had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 69.20% and a return on equity of 55.62%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 55.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.78 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Western Digital will post 23.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 4th will be issued a $0.1750 dividend. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 4th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total transaction of $825,466.65. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 80,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,052,185.77. This represents a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total transaction of $481,708.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 112,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,650,465.80. The trade was a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 over the last 90 days. 0.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WDC. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,602,927,000. Anther Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $901,601,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $885,565,000. Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at about $350,403,000. Finally, Trivest Advisors Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter worth approximately $627,606,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s latest earnings beat expectations, and its second-quarter outlook points to further margin growth. Strong pricing, demand for higher-capacity hard drives, and cloud and AI storage needs are cited as key supports. Western Digital’s Q1 beat and Q2 outlook
• Neutral Sentiment: Some analysts view the recent pullback as a potential buying opportunity given earnings growth and cloud demand, though opinions are tempered by risks. Is the dip a buying opportunity?
• Negative Sentiment: Storage and memory shares sold off amid concerns about memory pricing and uncertainty around the U.S. election, even as the broader tech market rallied. Cautious commentary from a flash-memory maker also pressured the group, with concerns spilling over to WDC despite its hard-drive focus. Sector pressure from election and memory-price worries
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are also weighing WDC’s premium valuation and the risk of executing its HAMR hard-drive technology roadmap, which could limit confidence despite strong results. Valuation and execution risks

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.