Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)

Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a $95.00 price objective on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on WDC. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Benchmark lowered Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $75.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, BNP Paribas reduced their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $95.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $85.65.

Western Digital Trading Up 1.2 %

WDC opened at $65.04 on Friday. Western Digital has a one year low of $52.76 and a one year high of $81.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $22.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.26 and a beta of 1.43. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $65.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $66.39.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.23. Western Digital had a return on equity of 8.57% and a net margin of 4.81%. The company had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($1.97) EPS. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 48.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 6.26 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 658 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.99, for a total value of $46,053.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,020,121.37. This represents a 2.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO David Goeckeler sold 75,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.58, for a total value of $5,443,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 821,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,633,905.40. This represents a 8.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 109,107 shares of company stock worth $7,768,381 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $95,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.3% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 274,976 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $20,835,000 after purchasing an additional 6,148 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its position in Western Digital by 17.1% during the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 5,331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 777 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 16.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 23,711 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 3,274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL grew its position in Western Digital by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 19,270 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,460,000 after purchasing an additional 1,375 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.