Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Receives $63.79 Average Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eighteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $63.79.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WDC. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $70.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 17th. Barclays set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Benchmark raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $80.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Western Digital from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $57.00 in a report on Thursday, May 1st.

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 transaction of $548,354.01. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 605,481 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,178,129.39. The trade was a 1.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 1,729 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.88, for a total value of $94,887.52. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 40,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,200,084.32. This trade represents a 4.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,353 shares of company stock valued at $657,454 over the last three months. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 77.2% during the first quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 7,662 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $310,000 after purchasing an additional 3,338 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter worth $7,641,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 229.7% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. Bluefin Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter worth $649,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1,882.8% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 185,889 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,515,000 after purchasing an additional 176,514 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital Trading Down 0.3%

Western Digital stock opened at $63.29 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $50.76 and a 200 day moving average of $52.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.99 and a beta of 1.49. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $80.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 13.33% and a return on equity of 20.58%. The business had revenue of ($1,465.00) million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.63 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 33.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 7.58%.

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

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.