Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 7.4% – What’s Next?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s stock price dropped 7.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $490.23 and last traded at $496.16. 9,262,249 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 4% from the average session volume of 8,937,651 shares. The stock had previously closed at $536.01.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Mizuho set a $590.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $159.68 billion, a PE ratio of 19.10 and a beta of 2.14. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $555.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $431.58.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion during 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total transaction of $427,941.04. Following the transaction, the insider owned 114,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,663,290.57. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total value of $1,376,694.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. This trade represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,987 shares of company stock valued at $11,602,097. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd purchased a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new position in Western Digital during the first quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.