Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 1.8% – What’s Next?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price fell 1.8% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $278.18 and last traded at $280.42. 7,156,529 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 33% from the average session volume of 10,623,070 shares. The stock had previously closed at $285.52.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Down 1.8%

The firm has a market capitalization of $95.07 billion, a PE ratio of 28.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $227.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $159.58.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total value of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $1,833,922.20. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 136,538 shares in the company, valued at $36,932,163.62. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. 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 period. NewSquare Capital LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 86.9% during the second 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 during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its stake in Western Digital by 551.4% during the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth $30,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.