Stock analysts at Macquarie initiated coverage on shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) in a research report issued on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set a “neutral” rating and a $90.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock. Macquarie’s target price points to a potential upside of 5.14% from the company’s previous close.
Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. BidaskClub cut shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Western Digital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $120.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, December 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, December 13th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. The company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $111.39.
Western Digital (NASDAQ WDC) traded down $0.80 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $85.60. 3,938,117 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,970,000. The company has a market capitalization of $25,030.00, a P/E ratio of 17.87, a P/E/G ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 1.12. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $71.10 and a 12-month high of $95.77. 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 announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, November 9th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.10 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.
In other news, insider Michael D. Cordano sold 1,397 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.13, for a total transaction of $123,117.61. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 70,556 shares in the company, valued at $6,218,100.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Kathleen A. Cote sold 2,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.63, for a total transaction of $181,260.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,421 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,488,235.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,039 shares of company stock valued at $1,400,999 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the second quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. now owns 3,600 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $319,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. People s United Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 0.3% during the second quarter. People s United Financial Inc. now owns 12,689 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,124,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Frontier Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 3.2% during the second quarter. Frontier Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,895 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 0.9% during the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 44,359 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,930,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Veritable L.P. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% during the second quarter. Veritable L.P. now owns 6,459 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $572,000 after purchasing an additional 463 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.86% of the company’s stock.
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).
