T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 8.30% to 25.54 million shares with purchase of 1.96 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 7.88% valued currently at $1.23 billion. In addition, Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. raised its holdings by 0.87 million to 13.36 million shares. And Geode Capital Management LLC has lifted its position by 1.76% or 0.12 million shares – to 7.17 million shares.
With over 3.85 million Western Digital Corp. (WDC) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $49.43 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $190.08 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 28.86% and its price on 01/09/24 lost nearly -1.51%. Currently, there are 322.00M common shares owned by the public and among those 319.39M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 25 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for WDC have a consensus price objective of $52.43. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $68.00 and a low of $42.00. The average price target is 5.7% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -17.69% over that period. But an upside of 27.31% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $50.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 68 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 21 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 496,061 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 47 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 551,373 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Western Digital Corp. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, T Rowe Price Mid Cap Value Fund, and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 10.1 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $487.89 million. The company bought an additional 12860.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.12% of the shares outstanding. T Rowe Price Mid Cap Value Fund bought 0.36 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 8.36 million shares valued at over $404.1 million and representing 2.58% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 33657.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 7.72 million shares at a value of $373.09 million. Vanguard 500 Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.38% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) opened at $49.524, down -$0.67 from a prior closing price of $50.19. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -2.81% and 8.88% over the past three months. WDC shares are trading -5.61% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 32.98% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $31.97 and touched a high of $53.21 over the same period. WDC has an average intraday trading volume of 5.59 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -2.78%, 4.51%, and 18.66% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) shares accounts for 86.87% of the company’s 322.00M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 45.35%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 5.61% and 42.07% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $16.03B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.56. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$7.67. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.50% over the week and 1.89% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Western Digital Corp. (WDC) will achieve an EPS of $Western Digital Corporation for the current quarter, $49.43 for the next quarter and $Stocks for Type. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $W. P. Carey Inc. REIT while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $WD-40 Company. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $Agree Realty Corporation a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 2.22%, and 216.63% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 25 brokerage firm advisors rate Western Digital Corp. (WDC) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.96. Specifically, 12 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 9 of the 25 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the WDC, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Goldman stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on November 21, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $31-$48.
