Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target Raised to $62.00 at Citigroup

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price objective raised by Citigroup from $56.00 to $62.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 12.62% from the company’s previous close.

WDC has been the subject of a number of other reports. TD Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $80.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $80.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $76.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $82.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $72.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.84.

Western Digital Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $55.05 on Wednesday. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $81.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The stock has a market cap of $19.21 billion, a PE ratio of 13.11 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a 50-day moving average of $43.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.29.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.30. Western Digital had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 15.68%. The company had revenue of ($1,465.00) million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, May 13th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to repurchase up to 11.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 11,379 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.19, for a total value of $548,354.01. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 605,481 shares in the company, valued at $29,178,129.39. This trade represents a 1.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 32.3% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 45,131 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,691,000 after acquiring an additional 11,013 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 841,700 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $50,191,000 after acquiring an additional 50,188 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 390,826 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $23,305,000 after acquiring an additional 15,189 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 83.9% during the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 31,634 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,886,000 after acquiring an additional 14,432 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 53.3% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 99,444 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,930,000 after acquiring an additional 34,579 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.