Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 1.6% – Time to Sell?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares traded down 1.6% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $420.88 and last traded at $441.57. 5,496,777 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 37% from the average session volume of 8,712,376 shares. The stock had previously closed at $448.90.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price target on Western Digital and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Fox Advisors cut Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Mizuho set a $590.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Price Performance

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $513.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $444.44. The company has a market capitalization of $152.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.24, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.66 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 2.48%.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total transaction of $481,708.52. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 112,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,650,465.80. This trade represents a 0.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This trade represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 23,642 shares of company stock valued at $10,676,659 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Range Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth about $369,000. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 37.8% during the 2nd quarter. Cornerstone Financial Management LLC now owns 175 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $112,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Formuepleje A S acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,505,000. Tucker Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 73.4% during the 2nd quarter. Tucker Asset Management LLC now owns 1,474 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $941,000 after acquiring an additional 624 shares during the period. Finally, Tobias Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $436,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Western Digital

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.