Western Digital shares put in a solid performance, Tuesday, rising more than 6% on the day after Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh reversed course and raised his rating on the storage-technology developer just one month after taking down his opinion of the company's shares.
Prior to the market open, Rakesh raised his rating on Western Digital (WDC) to buy from neutral, and lifted his price target on the company's shares to $75 from $55. Rakesh said he made the moves because of evidence that the PC, server and mobile handset markets are actually looking better than had been believed last month.
Rakesh said that for the first quarter of 2022, PCs and notebooks shipments now appear on track to be flat to down 5% from the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to earlier estimates of a decline of 10% to 15%, while Chinese handset manufacturers could see gains of as much as 5%, as opposed to an expected quarter-over-quarter decline of 10%. Rakesh also said that demand for servers could improve early next year as Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) are expected to boost orders to meet their data center needs.
Along with Western Digital (WDC), Rakesh also raised his rating on Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) to buy from neutral, and boosted his price target on the memory chipmaker's shares to $95 from $75, after cutting his rating on the company last month.