Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 1.9% – Time to Sell?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s stock price traded down 1.9% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $444.52 and last traded at $450.55. 5,830,716 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 33% from the average daily volume of 8,767,666 shares. The stock had previously closed at $459.45.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on WDC. Barclays lifted their price target on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Summit Insights downgraded Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Western Digital from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Melius Research set a $1,050.00 target price on shares of Western Digital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Trading Down 0.0%

The company has a market cap of $155.26 billion, a PE ratio of 18.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 2.13. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $516.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $443.28.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The business had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.66 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 2.48%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total value of $481,708.52. Following the transaction, the insider owned 112,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,650,465.80. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 23,642 shares of company stock worth $10,676,659. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the first quarter valued at $32,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage devices and systems for personal, enterprise and cloud applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company develops hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), NAND flash components and finished storage products used in PCs, external storage, servers, network-attached storage (NAS) and embedded systems.

Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial markets, including internal and external HDDs and SSDs, removable flash memory products and storage platforms for data center and enterprise environments.