Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 4.5% – Time to Sell?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares dropped 4.5% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $176.75 and last traded at $173.0150. Approximately 1,510,300 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 8,372,998 shares. The stock had previously closed at $181.08.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $150.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $228.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Loop Capital increased their price objective on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, December 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $173.65.

Western Digital Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $152.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $106.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.89, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.82.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter. Western Digital had a net margin of 21.37% and a return on equity of 30.89%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.28%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total value of $3,013,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 645,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,265,422.23. This trade represents a 3.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 144,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,217,779.72. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785 over the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. AIA Group Ltd increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 93.8% during the third quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 29,265 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,514,000 after purchasing an additional 14,165 shares during the period. FNY Investment Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Western Digital by 2,685.2% during the third quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 18,605 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,233,000 after buying an additional 17,937 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $211,000. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 125,696 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $15,091,000 after buying an additional 21,752 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $353,000. Institutional investors 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.