Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Insider Sells 6,780 Shares

by · The Markets Daily

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDCGet Free Report) insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 136,538 shares in the company, valued at $36,932,163.62. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock traded up $22.39 on Friday, reaching $282.58. 9,894,577 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,900,505. The firm has a market cap of $95.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.80. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $296.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. The company’s 50-day moving average is $202.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $142.32.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDCGet Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 229.7% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $307,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter worth approximately $83,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at $286,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the topic of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday. Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Loop Capital increased their target price on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

View Our Latest Research Report on Western Digital

Western Digital News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

  • Positive Sentiment: Board approved an incremental $4 billion share-repurchase program — a large, explicit capital-return move that supports demand for the stock and signals confidence from the board. Reuters: Western Digital adds $4 billion to buyback plan
  • Positive Sentiment: Innovation Day unveiled an AI-focused storage roadmap (claims of up to 8x performance improvements and path to 100TB+ HDDs), reinforcing WDC’s positioning in AI training/data-center storage — supports longer-term demand expectations. PCWorld: WD maps out 8x performance boosts
  • Positive Sentiment: Analyst community is upgrading WDC and lifting targets (several notes to Buy/Overweight and new street-high targets), which fuels short-term momentum and buy-side interest. Barchart: New street-high price target
  • Positive Sentiment: Recent quarterly results beat estimates (revenue and EPS strength) and reinforce the “memory supercycle” / AI-driven storage demand thesis — supports earnings growth expectations. Zacks: WDC is up 5.85% in one week
  • Neutral Sentiment: Sandisk’s dramatic rally (spun out from WDC) is lifting sentiment across the memory/storage complex — helpful for WDC thematically but also highlights increased sector volatility and comparatives. MarketBeat: Sandisk’s Swings Are Getting Bigger
  • Neutral Sentiment: Broader policy moves to secure supply chains for critical minerals are supportive over the long run for domestic hardware supply, but they are not an immediate stock catalyst. MarketBeat: Critical minerals policy
  • Negative Sentiment: CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares (~$5.1M) in early February (SEC filing) — an insider sale that can prompt some near-term profit-taking despite his continued large ownership. SEC filing: Insider sale disclosure

Western Digital Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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