Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target Raised to $80.00 at Barclays

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its target price raised by investment analysts at Barclays from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research note issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 21.60% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities upgraded Western Digital from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $65.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $70.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Raymond James downgraded shares of Western Digital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $73.72.

Western Digital Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $65.79 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $63.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.26. The stock has a market cap of $21.44 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.19 and a beta of 1.57. Western Digital has a 52-week low of $31.97 and a 52-week high of $76.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.67.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported ($0.69) earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.69) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital will post -2.21 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Western Digital by 93.1% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,663,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $651,948,000 after buying an additional 9,961,971 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 242.7% during the 1st quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 10,606,474 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $399,546,000 after acquiring an additional 7,511,896 shares during the last quarter. Kodai Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth $212,900,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $150,958,000. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1,332.0% during the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 1,554,153 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $81,391,000 after purchasing an additional 1,445,625 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Company Profile

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.