Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Citigroup Analyst Says

Key Points

• Citigroup raised its price target on Western Digital to $405 (from $335) and kept a "buy" rating, implying roughly a 16.7% upside from the prior close.
• Western Digital beat quarterly estimates with $2.13 EPS (vs. $1.93 expected) and $3.02B in revenue (up 25.2% YoY), and the stock recently traded around $347, near its 12‑month high.
• The MarketBeat consensus is a "Moderate Buy" with a $288.33 target, while institutional ownership is high at about 92.5% and insiders have made recent stock sales.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) had its price objective boosted by stock analysts at Citigroup from $335.00 to $405.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the data storage provider's stock. Citigroup's target price points to a potential upside of 16.66% from the company's previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $380.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $340.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. New Street Research set a $250.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $340.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $288.33.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC traded up $3.73 during trading on Monday, hitting $347.16. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,528,933 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,673,025. The company has a 50-day moving average of $284.31 and a 200-day moving average of $208.57. Western Digital has a 12 month low of $35.00 and a 12 month high of $349.75. 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 firm has a market cap of $117.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.67, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.77.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last issued 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. 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 analysts' expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company's stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company's stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 over the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $5,196,484,000 after acquiring an additional 243,177 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $791,317,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth about $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $456,884,000 after acquiring an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 11.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $456,737,000 after acquiring an additional 402,981 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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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