Western Digital’s (WDC) Buy Rating Reiterated at Rosenblatt Securities

Rosenblatt Securities reiterated their buy rating on shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) in a report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $340.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Benchmark upped their price target on Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. China Renaissance initiated coverage on Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price target for the company. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC opened at $282.58 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market cap of $95.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.80. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $205.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $143.80. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $296.50.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. The trade was a 31.79% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. ORG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Private Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 102.5% during the second quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 399 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. NewSquare Capital LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 86.9% during the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Finally, Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its position in Western Digital by 551.4% in the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Board approved an incremental $4 billion share-repurchase program — a large, explicit capital-return move that supports demand for the stock and signals confidence from the board. Reuters: Western Digital adds $4 billion to buyback plan
• Positive Sentiment: Innovation Day unveiled an AI-focused storage roadmap (claims of up to 8x performance improvements and path to 100TB+ HDDs), reinforcing WDC’s positioning in AI training/data-center storage — supports longer-term demand expectations. PCWorld: WD maps out 8x performance boosts
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst community is upgrading WDC and lifting targets (several notes to Buy/Overweight and new street-high targets), which fuels short-term momentum and buy-side interest. Barchart: New street-high price target
• Positive Sentiment: Recent quarterly results beat estimates (revenue and EPS strength) and reinforce the “memory supercycle” / AI-driven storage demand thesis — supports earnings growth expectations. Zacks: WDC is up 5.85% in one week
• Neutral Sentiment: Sandisk’s dramatic rally (spun out from WDC) is lifting sentiment across the memory/storage complex — helpful for WDC thematically but also highlights increased sector volatility and comparatives. MarketBeat: Sandisk’s Swings Are Getting Bigger
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader policy moves to secure supply chains for critical minerals are supportive over the long run for domestic hardware supply, but they are not an immediate stock catalyst. MarketBeat: Critical minerals policy
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares (~$5.1M) in early February (SEC filing) — an insider sale that can prompt some near-term profit-taking despite his continued large ownership. SEC filing: Insider sale disclosure

Western Digital Company Profile

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.