Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Rating)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Friday after Benchmark lowered their price target on the stock from $85.00 to $65.00. The stock had previously closed at $44.83, but opened at $43.20. Benchmark currently has a buy rating on the stock. Western Digital shares last traded at $43.47, with a volume of 27,722 shares changing hands.
Several other analysts also recently issued reports on WDC. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Friday, April 29th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 2nd. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $50.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 4th. Finally, Cowen raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Friday, April 29th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.35.
In other Western Digital news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 4,776 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total value of $300,888.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 26,719 shares in the company, valued at $1,683,297. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Addison Advisors LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 6,375.0% during the 1st quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 510 shares in the last quarter. Paragon Capital Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 74.2% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 526 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 224 shares during the period. Finally, Herold Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 81.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $54.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 2.09. The firm has a market cap of $13.44 billion, a PE ratio of 7.77 and a beta of 1.41.
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.14. Western Digital had a net margin of 9.49% and a return on equity of 20.88%. The business had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Western Digital Co. will post 7.26 earnings per share for the current year.
About Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)
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 computing devices, such as desktop and notebook personal computers (PCs), smart video systems, gaming consoles, and set top boxes; 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; and flash-based memory wafers.