Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)

Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 30,871 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 13% compared to the typical volume of 27,329 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $68.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Western Digital from $66.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $50.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Western Digital from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Western Digital from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.25.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $33,225.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 30,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,321,850. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Western Digital news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 2,648 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.95, for a total value of $185,227.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 20,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,434,604.55. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 443 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $33,225.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 30,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,321,850. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 30.3% during the 4th quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. now owns 103,750 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,433,000 after purchasing an additional 24,100 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 2.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,028,114 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $138,173,000 after acquiring an additional 66,680 shares in the last quarter. Numerai GP LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $884,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at $1,415,000. Finally, Sora Investors LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 441.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sora Investors LLC now owns 325,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $14,830,000 after purchasing an additional 265,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock traded up $1.92 during trading on Friday, hitting $71.36. The stock had a trading volume of 13,864,848 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,097,184. The stock has a market cap of $23.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.01 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.67. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $65.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $54.96. Western Digital has a 1-year low of $32.01 and a 1-year high of $76.92.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The data storage provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.42. Western Digital had a negative net margin of 19.90% and a negative return on equity of 19.45%. The firm had revenue of $3.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($1.57) EPS. Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital will post -2.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Company Profile

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.