Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its target price lowered by analysts at Craig Hallum from $142.00 to $110.00 in a report issued on Friday. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Craig Hallum’s price target points to a potential upside of 22.77% from the company’s previous close.
A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on WDC. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Sunday, October 8th. Vetr downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $98.49 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, October 30th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 24th. Cowen set a $117.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Western Digital from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $120.00 to $93.00 in a research report on Monday, October 2nd. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $111.25.
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) traded up $1.61 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $89.60. 8,178,735 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,542,398. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a current ratio of 2.64. Western Digital has a fifty-two week low of $71.38 and a fifty-two week high of $95.77. The company has a market cap of $25,730.00, a P/E ratio of 74.05, a PEG ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 1.12.
Western Digital announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, November 9th that allows the company to buyback $2.10 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the data storage provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.
In related news, Director Kathleen A. Cote sold 2,000 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 16,421 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,488,235.23. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Henry T. Denero sold 4,097 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the director now owns 10,834 shares in the company, valued at $931,398.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,039 shares of company stock worth $1,400,999 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.
A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital World Investors bought a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,019,202,000. Iridian Asset Management LLC CT grew its stake in Western Digital by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Iridian Asset Management LLC CT now owns 5,920,657 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $511,545,000 after acquiring an additional 278,951 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Western Digital by 22.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,281,695 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $283,538,000 after acquiring an additional 598,563 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Western Digital by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,086,925 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $266,720,000 after acquiring an additional 83,030 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management Inc. grew its stake in Western Digital by 26.7% in the 2nd quarter. Fred Alger Management Inc. now owns 2,821,595 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $249,993,000 after acquiring an additional 593,869 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.27% of the company’s stock.
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About Western Digital
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).
