Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Up 1.2% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) were up 1.2% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $428.14 and last traded at $416.97. Approximately 7,211,223 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 16% from the average session volume of 8,591,520 shares. The stock had previously closed at $411.96.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen cut Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. Finally, Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Up 1.7%

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $482.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $457.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $146.10 billion, a PE ratio of 17.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 2.13.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The company had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.66 EPS. Western Digital’s revenue was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 432 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $451.20, for a total value of $194,918.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 111,030 shares in the company, valued at $50,096,736. This trade represents a 0.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 25,437 shares of company stock worth $11,461,345 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth about $788,729,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,602,927,000. National Pension Service boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 267.6% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $291,422,000 after buying an additional 1,231,477 shares during the period. Anther Capital Ltd bought a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $901,601,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $885,565,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) develops, manufactures and sells data storage products and solutions for data centers, cloud service providers, enterprises, businesses and consumers. Its portfolio is centered on hard disk drives (HDDs), including high-capacity enterprise drives used in cloud and data center environments, as well as products for network-attached storage, surveillance and personal computing.

The company markets products under brands including Western Digital, WD, WD_BLACK and Ultrastar.