Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Western Digital to $380 and gave an "overweight" rating, implying roughly a 23.6% upside and sitting well above the consensus average target of $278.83.
• Western Digital beat expectations for the quarter with $2.13 EPS versus $1.93 expected and $3.02 billion in revenue (up 25.2% year-over-year), and the stock jumped to $307.44 following the results.
• Company insiders have been selling recently (including a director and the CEO), with 92,795 shares sold in the last 90 days valued at about $24.3 million, while institutional investors hold roughly 92.5% of the stock.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) had its target price upped by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley to $380.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "overweight" rating on the data storage provider's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective indicates a potential upside of 23.60% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Mizuho increased their target price on Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. TD Cowen upped their price target on Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Twenty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $278.83.

Western Digital Trading Up 4.2%

WDC stock traded up $12.47 during trading on Monday, reaching $307.44. 2,633,387 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,861,554. The firm has a market capitalization of $104.23 billion, a PE ratio of 30.87, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The business's 50 day moving average price is $277.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $200.88. Western Digital has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $319.62.

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

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. ORG Partners LLC raised its stake in Western Digital by 124.5% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. 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 during the period. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at $30,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

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