Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Up 4.1% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) rose 4.1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $70.00 to $78.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Western Digital traded as high as $59.07 and last traded at $59.74. Approximately 575,421 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 91% from the average daily volume of 6,451,101 shares. The stock had previously closed at $57.41.

WDC has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Western Digital from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Western Digital from $82.00 to $68.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. TD Securities lowered their price objective on Western Digital from $80.00 to $53.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays set a $50.00 price target on Western Digital and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $63.79.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 11,379 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.19, for a total transaction of $548,354.01. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 605,481 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $29,178,129.39. This trade represents a 1.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 1,729 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.88, for a total value of $94,887.52. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,089 shares in the company, valued at $2,200,084.32. This trade represents a 4.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 13,353 shares of company stock valued at $657,454. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Western Digital by 89.2% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,883 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $530,000 after buying an additional 4,187 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in Western Digital by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 11,804 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $704,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth approximately $732,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Western Digital by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 390,826 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $23,305,000 after buying an additional 15,189 shares during the period. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 21,247 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,398,000 after buying an additional 962 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $20.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.23 and a beta of 1.49. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $48.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.36. The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 1.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.30. The company had revenue of ($1,465.00) million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 20.58% and a net margin of 13.33%. The firm's revenue was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. Western Digital's payout ratio is currently 7.58%.

Western Digital declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, May 13th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to reacquire up to 11.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.