Bank of America Increases Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target to $85.00

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price objective increased by equities research analysts at Bank of America from $75.00 to $85.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 24.41% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $65.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $70.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $66.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $65.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Western Digital from $58.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $73.17.

Western Digital Stock Down 2.6 %

Shares of WDC opened at $68.32 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.99. Western Digital has a 52 week low of $31.97 and a 52 week high of $76.92. The firm has a market cap of $22.26 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.58 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.67.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported ($0.69) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.30) by $0.61. Western Digital had a negative net margin of 19.90% and a negative return on equity of 19.45%. The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.69) EPS. The business’s revenue was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Western Digital will post -2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $33,225.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 30,958 shares in the company, valued at $2,321,850. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $33,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 30,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,321,850. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 2,648 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total transaction of $185,227.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 20,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,434,604.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Western Digital by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 38,579,938 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,020,431,000 after purchasing an additional 215,207 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Western Digital by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,595,297 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $851,166,000 after purchasing an additional 1,931,325 shares during the period. Nomura Holdings Inc. grew its position in Western Digital by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. now owns 13,361,999 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $609,708,000 after purchasing an additional 870,971 shares during the period. DNB Asset Management AS grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 5,587,698 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $292,628,000 after acquiring an additional 443,903 shares during the period. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 5,143,795 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $234,711,000 after acquiring an additional 351,916 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.