Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 3.4% on Insider Selling

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) traded down 3.4% during trading on Thursday following insider selling activity. The company traded as low as $254.91 and last traded at $260.19. 10,521,696 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 4% from the average session volume of 10,935,140 shares. The stock had previously closed at $269.41.

Specifically, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $135.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $262.25.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Company unveiled an AI-focused product roadmap at Innovation Day — 100TB+ HDD roadmap, UltraSMR adoption and customer-focused performance improvements that position WDC as an AI data-infrastructure supplier. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized a large shareholder-return program (additional $4B buyback) and the company continues a dividend, supporting near-term buy demand and signaling management confidence. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts are lifting targets and reiterating buys (examples: Mizuho/Rosenblatt upgrades to ~$340 PT), which fuels momentum and analyst-driven buying interest. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product-performance headlines (WD teases up to ~8x speed improvements and future high-capacity drives) give a tangible tech catalyst that supports longer-term revenue/margin upside from hyperscalers. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: SanDisk’s runaway rally (spun off from WDC) is lifting sentiment in memory/storage names but brings increased volatility and rotates investor attention between speed (SanDisk) and capacity (WDC). Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro/policy coverage (U.S. push to secure critical minerals) is supportive longer term for domestic supply chains but not an immediate stock catalyst. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares (~$5.1M), reducing his disclosed holding — an insider sale that can trigger short-term profit-taking even if the stake remains large. Read More.

Western Digital Stock Performance

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 firm has a market cap of $88.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.10, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.80. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $200.92 and its 200 day moving average is $141.50.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. Western Digital’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders 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 is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. ORG Partners LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 124.5% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Western Digital by 102.5% in the 2nd quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 399 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 86.9% during the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Finally, Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% in the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by 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.