Insider Selling: Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Insider Sells $61,227.54 in Stock

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 214 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.11, for a total transaction of $61,227.54. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 133,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,276,081.91. This represents a 0.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $279.70 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $94.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.05, a PEG ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.75. The business has a 50 day moving average of $238.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $166.82. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $309.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 16th. New Street Research set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Argus set a $300.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

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.