Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-six research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $189.0476.

WDC has been the topic of several research reports. Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $135.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Mizuho set a $240.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird set a $180.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $221.51 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $175.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $124.85. Western Digital has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $230.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.24, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.78.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $2.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.72 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 30.89% and a net margin of 21.37%.The firm’s revenue was up 27.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.78 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-2.030 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 4th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $596,524.46. This trade represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 44 Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 0.8% in the third quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,329 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,120,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 41.5% during the 4th quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 293 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pure Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 3.1% during the third quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $430,000 after buying an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.