Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) stock fell -1.51% on Wednesday to $37.23 against a previous-day closing price of $37.80. With 2.8 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 3.95 million shares. During the session, the Computer Hardware company that operates in wider Technology sector, reached to the highest price of $37.85 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $37.13. The 52-week range on WDC shows that it touched its highest point at $63.00 and its lowest point at $29.73 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $45.50. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.66.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of WDC was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 0.68%, but this was up by 16.02% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -6.43% while six-month performance rose 3.56%. The stock lost -35.07% in the past year, while it has gained 18.00% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for WDC yields -2.19 with Next year EPS estimates of -1.51. For the next quarter, that number is -2.02. This implies an EPS growth rate of 78.70% for this year and 58.10% for next year.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 319.00 million WDC shares are outstanding with a float of 316.77 million shares on hand for trading. On Apr 27, 2023, short shares totaled 8.18 million, which was 2.56% higher than short shares on Mar 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. David V. Goeckeler as the firm’s CEO & Director, Mr. Wissam G. Jabre serves as its Exec. VP & CFO.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 88.30% of WDC’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 5.83% of WDC, in contrast to 45.24% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 42.77%. As the largest shareholder in WDC with 11.39% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 36,383,804 shares worth 36,383,804. A second-largest stockholder of WDC, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., holds 22,595,297 shares, controlling over 7.08% of the firm’s shares. BlackRock Fund Advisors is the third largest shareholder in WDC, holding 16,050,483 shares or 5.03% stake. With a 3.11% stake in WDC, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 9,919,886 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The T Rowe Price Mid Cap Value Fund, which owns about 2.50% of WDC stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 7,966,648 shares valued at 274.37 million. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund holds 2.34% of the stake in WDC, owning 7,454,929 shares worth 256.75 million.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Mar 30, 2023, WDC reported revenue of $4.53B and operating income of $581.00M. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $802.00M and diluted EPS was $0.95.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for WDC since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With WDC analysts setting a high price target of $60.00 and a low target of $31.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $44.90. Based on these targets, WDC could surge 61.16% to reach the target high and fall by -16.73% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 20.6% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded WDC stock several times over the past three months with 1 Buys and 6 Sells. In these transactions, 5,109 shares were bought while 217,982 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 28 while that of sell transactions has risen to 30 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 1,125,116 while 346,806 shares were sold.
