Western Digital's (WDC) "Overweight" Rating Reiterated at Morgan Stanley

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "overweight" rating reaffirmed by analysts at Morgan Stanley in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports. They presently have a $70.00 target price on the data storage provider's stock, up from their prior target price of $54.00. Morgan Stanley's price objective suggests a potential upside of 32.94% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on WDC. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Western Digital from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Benchmark raised Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $55.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. TD Securities cut their target price on Western Digital from $80.00 to $53.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Western Digital from $80.00 to $58.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $64.95.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC stock traded up $0.83 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $52.65. The stock had a trading volume of 2,624,336 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,403,470. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $41.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.37 billion, a PE ratio of 12.54 and a beta of 1.42. Western Digital has a 12 month low of $28.83 and a 12 month high of $81.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of ($1,465.00) million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 15.68%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 33.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, May 13th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to buy up to 11.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 11,379 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.19, for a total transaction of $548,354.01. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 605,481 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,178,129.39. This represents a 1.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 1,659 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.36, for a total value of $68,616.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 43,776 shares in the company, valued at $1,810,575.36. This represents a 3.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,494 shares of company stock worth $636,747 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Western Digital by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,938,495 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,736,003,000 after acquiring an additional 478,728 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,745,264 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $520,450,000 after buying an additional 823,656 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth about $352,572,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its position in Western Digital by 130.0% in the 1st quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 5,029,359 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $203,337,000 after buying an additional 2,842,822 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,592,516 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $273,852,000 after acquiring an additional 881,088 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company's stock.

About Western Digital

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.