Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 7.5% – Here’s What Happened

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s stock price traded down 7.5% during mid-day trading on Monday. The company traded as low as $335.75 and last traded at $338.59. 7,172,030 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 17% from the average daily volume of 8,670,936 shares. The stock had previously closed at $366.11.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America upped their target price on Western Digital from $720.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $540.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Western Digital from $590.00 to $770.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities decreased their target price on Western Digital from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued 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 $591.04.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $126.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.14, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 2.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $421.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $416.75.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.11 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 55.62% and a net margin of 69.20%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 55.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.78 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 23.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 4th will be given a dividend of $0.1750 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 4th. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 2.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total transaction of $825,466.65. Following the transaction, the insider owned 80,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,052,185.77. The trade was a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 807 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $380.00, for a total transaction of $306,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 108,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,392,640. This represents a 0.74% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 in the last ninety days. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 71.4% in the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 230,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $147,275,000 after purchasing an additional 96,078 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at $19,694,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the second quarter worth $14,466,000. OneAscent Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the second quarter worth $1,599,000. Finally, Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter worth $8,307,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.