Brokerages Set Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Target Price at $173.65

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-five analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $173.65.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Citigroup increased their price objective on Western Digital from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Mizuho set a $180.00 target price on Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday. Wedbush lifted their target price on Western Digital from $90.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Western Digital from $105.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 144,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,217,779.72. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. AIA Group Ltd lifted its stake in Western Digital by 93.8% in the third quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 29,265 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,514,000 after buying an additional 14,165 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 2,685.2% in the 3rd quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 18,605 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after acquiring an additional 17,937 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at $211,000. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its stake in Western Digital by 20.9% during the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 125,696 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $15,091,000 after acquiring an additional 21,752 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter worth $353,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $181.08 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $152.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.66. Western Digital has a 12 month low of $28.83 and a 12 month high of $188.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.36, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Western Digital had a return on equity of 30.89% and a net margin of 21.37%.The company had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter. Equities research analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a $0.125 dividend. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.28%.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage devices and systems for personal, enterprise and cloud applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company develops hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), NAND flash components and finished storage products used in PCs, external storage, servers, network-attached storage (NAS) and embedded systems.

Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial markets, including internal and external HDDs and SSDs, removable flash memory products and storage platforms for data center and enterprise environments.