Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 3.2% – What’s Next?

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) traded down 3.2% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $501.27 and last traded at $527.22. Approximately 8,240,419 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 8% from the average session volume of 8,920,299 shares. The stock had previously closed at $544.84.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s prior quarter showed strong momentum: revenue increased 45.5% year over year to $3.34 billion, while adjusted earnings of $2.72 per share exceeded the $2.39 consensus estimate. Analysts expect another year-over-year improvement in the upcoming report. Will Western Digital Beat Estimates Again
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s earnings-surprise history and improving revenue, gross-margin, and earnings outlook support expectations for another potential beat. Seagate Technology’s strong earnings report also provided a favorable read-through for the data-storage market. Seagate Earnings and Western Digital
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains broadly constructive, with recent price targets ranging from $500 to $900 and a reported median target of $575. Several analysts continue to cite the company’s strong outlook despite its substantial run-up. Western Digital Analyst Outlook

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird raised 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $560.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, July 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $520.32.

Western Digital Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $181.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.48 and a beta of 2.11. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $568.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $408.97.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at $60,663,290.57. The trade was a 0.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 5,093 shares of company stock valued at $2,751,337. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at about $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $350,403,000. Finally, National Pension Service grew its holdings in Western Digital by 267.6% during the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $291,422,000 after buying an additional 1,231,477 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.