Cynthia Tregillis Sells 214 Shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 214 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.11, for a total transaction of $61,227.54. Following the sale, the insider owned 133,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,276,081.91. This trade represents a 0.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock traded down $2.55 on Friday, hitting $279.70. The stock had a trading volume of 9,889,130 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,602,297. The stock has a market cap of $94.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $309.90. The business’s 50 day moving average is $236.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $164.14.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $791,317,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth about $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its position in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WDC. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Argus set a $300.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

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.