Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Insider Cynthia Tregillis Sells 106 Shares of Stock

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 106 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $458.87, for a total value of $48,640.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 118,443 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,349,939.41. The trade was a 0.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $484.28 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $373.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $268.41. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.00 and a 1 year high of $525.15. The company has a market capitalization of $166.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.91 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 2.99%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its holdings 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 worth $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital during the third quarter worth $30,000. Avion Wealth grew its holdings in Western Digital by 163.8% during the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 207.0% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $488.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $395.83.

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.