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

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reissued by research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $95.00 price objective on the data storage provider’s stock. Cantor Fitzgerald’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 47.80% from the stock’s previous close.

WDC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Benchmark lowered shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $81.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Western Digital from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Western Digital from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $85.11.

Western Digital Stock Up 2.3 %

WDC traded up $1.48 during trading on Thursday, hitting $64.28. 5,174,196 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,070,782. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $65.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $52.77 and a 12-month high of $81.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.86 and a beta of 1.43.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.91 by ($0.36). Western Digital had a net margin of 4.81% and a return on equity of 8.57%. Analysts predict that Western Digital will post 5.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 658 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,863 shares in the company, valued at $2,020,121.37. This represents a 2.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,347 shares of company stock worth $93,027. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. 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 last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in Western Digital by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 137,360 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $8,338,000 after buying an additional 5,159 shares during the last quarter. 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 last quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co. increased its position in Western Digital by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co. now owns 21,423 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,277,000 after buying an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its position in Western Digital by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 18,600 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,109,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.