Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Down 6.9% – Here’s Why

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s stock price was down 6.9% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $509.56 and last traded at $519.80. Approximately 4,722,849 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 47% from the average daily volume of 8,930,697 shares. The stock had previously closed at $558.30.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $685.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $520.32.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $179.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.03 and a beta of 2.11. The company’s 50 day moving average is $564.15 and its 200 day moving average is $396.20.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.36 EPS. The business’s 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. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 3.58%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 28,959 shares of company stock valued at $12,631,666. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 28.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 90 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 2,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,470,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the period. Everpar Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $921,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 45.5% in the second quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 2.1% in the second quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 1,390 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $888,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is 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.