Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 3.5% After Insider Selling

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares dropped 3.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $267.85 and last traded at $270.57. Approximately 8,594,210 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 19% from the average daily volume of 10,569,418 shares. The stock had previously closed at $280.42.

Specifically, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 308 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.70, for a total transaction of $86,763.60. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 134,759 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,961,610.30. The trade was a 0.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 130 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.83, for a total transaction of $36,897.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 135,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,336,066.61. The trade was a 0.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings raised Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized an additional $4.0 billion share repurchase and flagged an AI/data-center HDD roadmap (40TB UltraSMR in customer qualification; path to 100TB+ HAMR). That buyback plus AI positioning drove the recent rally. QuiverQuant: Buyback expansion and AI-era HDD roadmap
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks added WDC to its top growth/momentum lists and published bullish commentary — reinforcing short-term investor interest and buy-side flows into WDC as an AI/data-center beneficiary. Zacks: Momentum Stock Note
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks also added WDC to its Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) growth stocks list, a spotlight that can attract momentum-focused flows. Zacks: Best Growth Stocks to Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital plans to relaunch its G-DRIVE external storage brand — a product/marketing initiative that supports consumer positioning but is not an immediate earnings catalyst. MSN: G-DRIVE Relaunch
• Neutral Sentiment: Small insider sale disclosed (Cynthia Tregillis sold ~130 shares) — immaterial size but often highlighted by media during volatile sessions. SEC Filing: Insider Sale
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that WDC is exiting most of its remaining SanDisk stake via secondary sale / exchange have raised concerns about added share supply and a focus on balance-sheet cleanup rather than buybacks — a key near-term overhang. Yahoo Finance: SanDisk stake sale and balance-sheet actions
• Negative Sentiment: Citron Research launched a short call focused on Sandisk / the NAND cycle and highlighted WDC’s SanDisk exit as a potential warning — the report can amplify downside while investors digest valuation and cycle risk. Yahoo Finance: Citron Short on Sandisk

Western Digital Stock Performance

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $236.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $164.14. The company has a market capitalization of $95.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth $791,317,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in 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 buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $221,800,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.