Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Sets New 12-Month High on Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Evercore upgrade lifted Western Digital to a new 52-week high after the firm raised its price target from $378 to $410 and maintained an outperform rating, with shares trading as high as $380.65.
• The company delivered a strong quarter—EPS $2.13 vs. $1.93 est. and revenue of $3.02B (up 25.2% YoY)—which has supported multiple analyst target increases and bullish coverage.
• While insiders sold roughly 92,795 shares (~$24.3M) in the last quarter, institutional investors own about 92.51% of the stock, including large stakes from WCM, Norges Bank, Fred Alger and others.

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high on Monday after Evercore raised their price target on the stock from $378.00 to $410.00. Evercore currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Western Digital traded as high as $380.65 and last traded at $368.9840, with a volume of 957306 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $372.52.

A number of other research firms have also commented on WDC. New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Zacks Research cut Western Digital from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $380.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $375.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $305.63.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 121,682 shares of the company's stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $791,317,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $293.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $217.26. The stock has a market cap of $124.99 billion, a PE ratio of 37.01, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced 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 return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. The company's revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

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.

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