Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its target price lifted by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $90.00 to $92.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 10.01% from the stock’s current price.
Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Vetr downgraded Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $93.86 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 10th. ValuEngine downgraded Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 1st. Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $88.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, October 10th. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $105.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, September 5th. Finally, UBS cut their price target on Western Digital from $101.00 to $93.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 12th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Western Digital has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $113.10.
Shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) traded up $1.86 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $83.63. The company had a trading volume of 6,405,088 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,151,387. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 2.64 and a quick ratio of 2.13. Western Digital has a 1 year low of $66.59 and a 1 year high of $95.77. The firm has a market cap of $24,017.87, a P/E ratio of 8.15 and a beta of 1.10.
Western Digital declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, November 9th that permits the company to repurchase $2.10 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.
In related news, Director Henry T. Denero sold 4,097 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.97, for a total transaction of $352,219.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $931,398.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Michael D. Cordano sold 9,404 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.71, for a total transaction of $834,228.84. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 75,385 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,687,403.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,042 shares of company stock worth $2,116,143 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Coastline Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 16.6% in the third quarter. Coastline Trust Co now owns 13,236 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,144,000 after acquiring an additional 1,880 shares during the last quarter. Gyroscope Capital Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth about $5,408,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 19.7% in the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,433 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $385,000 after acquiring an additional 729 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth about $211,000. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth about $700,000. 83.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
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Western Digital Company Profile
Western Digital Corporation (Western Digital) is a developer, manufacturer and provider of data storage devices and solutions that address the needs of the information technology (IT) industry and the infrastructure that enables the proliferation of data in virtually every industry. The Company’s portfolio of offerings addresses three categories: Datacenter Devices and Solutions (capacity and performance enterprise hard disk drives (HDDs), enterprise solid state drives (SSDs), datacenter software and system solutions); Client Devices (mobile, desktop, gaming and digital video hard drives, client SSDs, embedded products and wafers), and Client Solutions (removable products, hard drive content solutions and flash content solutions).
