Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Down 3.5% – Should You Sell?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares traded down 3.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $267.85 and last traded at $270.57. 8,594,210 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 19% from the average session volume of 10,569,418 shares. The stock had previously closed at $280.42.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on WDC. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Barclays upped their price target on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Trading Down 3.5%

The stock has a market cap of $91.73 billion, a PE ratio of 27.14, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.79. The business has a 50-day moving average of $230.05 and a 200 day moving average of $161.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 66,954 shares of company stock worth $17,111,480. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. ORG Partners LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 86.9% during the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

About Western Digital

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.