Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 1.6% – Here’s Why

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price traded down 1.6% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $420.88 and last traded at $441.57. 5,496,777 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 37% from the average daily volume of 8,712,376 shares. The stock had previously closed at $448.90.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on WDC shares. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Western Digital from $560.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Two investment 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $152.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.24, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 2.13. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $513.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $444.44.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.66 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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 paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 2.48%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

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

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 64,424.3% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 338,388,746 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $216,135,660,000 after purchasing an additional 337,864,310 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Western Digital by 11.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after acquiring an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 70.4% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $512,107,000 after acquiring an additional 1,228,661 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.