Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 1.6% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) rose 1.6% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $280.75 and last traded at $266.22. Approximately 8,454,592 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 18% from the average daily volume of 10,262,727 shares. The stock had previously closed at $262.06.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on WDC. UBS Group set a $306.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Up 1.6%

The company has a market cap of $90.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.75. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $248.03 and its 200-day moving average is $174.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 84,277 shares of company stock worth $22,091,068 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its stake in Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.