Evercore ISI Boosts Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target to $85.00

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price target raised by Evercore ISI from $80.00 to $85.00 in a research note published on Friday, Benzinga reports. Evercore ISI currently has an outperform rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised Western Digital from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Western Digital from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their target price for the company from $45.00 to $65.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on Western Digital from $70.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com downgraded Western Digital from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Benchmark upgraded Western Digital from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $85.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $77.25.

Western Digital Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of WDC opened at $71.36 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $65.08 and a 200 day moving average of $55.09. Western Digital has a fifty-two week low of $32.01 and a fifty-two week high of $76.92. The firm has a market cap of $23.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.36 and a beta of 1.57. 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 earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The data storage provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.42. The business had revenue of $3.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.37 billion. Western Digital had a negative return on equity of 13.67% and a negative net margin of 12.87%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($1.57) EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Western Digital will post -2.21 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Highview Capital Management LLC DE bought a new stake in Western Digital in the first quarter valued at approximately $701,000. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $267,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 37.3% during the first quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 843 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 229 shares during the period. Whalen Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $538,000. Finally, Wolff Financial Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $220,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

About Western Digital

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.