Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 1.9% – Here’s What Happened

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Western Digital from $560.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $526.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $440.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $155.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.61 and a beta of 2.14.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the first quarter worth $32,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently 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.