Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 2nd. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. UBS Group set a $306.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $280.42 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $230.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $161.03. Western Digital has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $309.90. The stock has a market cap of $95.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total value of $1,833,922.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 136,538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,932,163.62. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,954 shares of company stock worth $17,111,480. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. ORG Partners LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 124.5% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its position 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 in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital by 86.9% during the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.