Investors Purchase Large Volume of Western Digital Call Options (NASDAQ:WDC)

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 38,227 call options on the company. This is an increase of 32% compared to the typical volume of 28,959 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total value of $3,013,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 645,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,265,422.23. The trade was a 3.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total value of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Vident Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 1st quarter worth approximately $214,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 17.0% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,059 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 299 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 77.7% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 447,426 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $17,705,000 after buying an additional 195,606 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 252.7% during the first quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 15,839 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $640,000 after buying an additional 11,348 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 3,019 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Down 9.1%

Shares of NASDAQ WDC traded down $19.95 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $199.43. 10,148,092 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,799,924. Western Digital has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $221.23. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $166.80 and a 200 day moving average of $116.63. The stock has a market cap of $68.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter. The business 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, research analysts expect that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. 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 is currently 7.28%.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Investor excitement after Nvidia’s CES keynote lifted memory/storage names, and WDC jumped strongly as traders priced faster AI-related storage demand into the stock. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 was highlighted as validation of its strategic shift toward AI/data-center storage — a structural story investors reward with higher multiples. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Unusual options activity: traders bought ≈38,227 WDC call contracts (about 32% above the average daily call volume), signaling short‑term bullish positioning from derivatives traders.
• Positive Sentiment: Fund commentary and quarter notes point to “accelerated demand” in Q4, supporting the narrative of improving end-market dynamics for WDC’s storage products. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: SanDisk is rebranding WD_BLACK and WD_Blue consumer SSD lines to a new “Optimus” family — a marketing/product update that affects consumer perception but is unlikely to materially change WDC’s data-center growth thesis. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: WDC is showing up frequently on radar lists and trend roundups as investors rotate into memory/storage plays; visibility is high, but this can amplify short-term volatility. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Some market commentators warn the rally has been sharp and suggest selling into strength or re‑rating concerns after a rapid run — raising the risk of a pullback if fundamentals don’t immediately accelerate further. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation checks: after a sharp multi-week rally some analysts are flagging stretched valuation metrics and urging caution if earnings revisions or demand signals disappoint. Read More.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $150.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Barclays upped their target price on Western Digital from $105.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Wedbush raised their price target on Western Digital from $90.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $170.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, China Renaissance initiated coverage on Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $173.65.

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.