Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Given New $257.00 Price Target at Bank of America

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price objective boosted by Bank of America from $197.00 to $257.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 12.93% from the company’s current price.

WDC has been the topic of several other research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $240.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Western Digital from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Western Digital to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.95.

Western Digital Trading Up 2.7%

Shares of WDC stock traded up $6.07 on Tuesday, reaching $227.58. 1,846,597 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,960,786. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $176.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $125.95. Western Digital has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $230.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.81 billion, a PE ratio of 33.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.78.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.21. Western Digital had a return on equity of 30.89% and a net margin of 21.37%.The business had revenue of $2.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 27.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-2.030 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total transaction of $3,013,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 645,467 shares in the company, valued at $97,265,422.23. This represents a 3.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 0.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,196,484,000 after purchasing an additional 243,177 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $593,045,000 after purchasing an additional 186,030 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP increased its position in Western Digital by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $354,247,000 after buying an additional 431,419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Western Digital by 11.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.