Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Up 6% – What’s Next?

Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC)’s stock price rose 6% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $68.05 and last traded at $68.36. Approximately 1,621,025 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 6,190,959 shares. The stock had previously closed at $64.46.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Western Digital from $90.00 to $82.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Western Digital from $89.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Western Digital from $78.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Western Digital from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.21.

Western Digital Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $23.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.41 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $64.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.16.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by ($0.36). Western Digital had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 15.68%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital Co. will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 658 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.99, for a total transaction of $46,053.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 28,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,020,121.37. The trade was a 2.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 1,347 shares of company stock valued at $93,027 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,459,767 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,531,876,000 after buying an additional 1,439,149 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 3.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,572,686 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $926,879,000 after acquiring an additional 423,651 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 1.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,921,608 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $539,355,000 after acquiring an additional 76,781 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 24.6% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,711,428 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $253,453,000 after purchasing an additional 732,344 shares during the period. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,287,400 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $224,497,000 after purchasing an additional 383,390 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.