Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 3.4% Following Insider Selling

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) fell 3.4% during trading on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $254.91 and last traded at $260.19. 10,521,696 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 4% from the average session volume of 10,935,140 shares. The stock had previously closed at $269.41.

Specifically, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on WDC. Benchmark raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Western Digital from $135.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $262.25.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Company unveiled an AI-focused product roadmap at Innovation Day — 100TB+ HDD roadmap, UltraSMR adoption and customer-focused performance improvements that position WDC as an AI data-infrastructure supplier. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized a large shareholder-return program (additional $4B buyback) and the company continues a dividend, supporting near-term buy demand and signaling management confidence. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts are lifting targets and reiterating buys (examples: Mizuho/Rosenblatt upgrades to ~$340 PT), which fuels momentum and analyst-driven buying interest. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Product-performance headlines (WD teases up to ~8x speed improvements and future high-capacity drives) give a tangible tech catalyst that supports longer-term revenue/margin upside from hyperscalers. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: SanDisk’s runaway rally (spun off from WDC) is lifting sentiment in memory/storage names but brings increased volatility and rotates investor attention between speed (SanDisk) and capacity (WDC). Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro/policy coverage (U.S. push to secure critical minerals) is supportive longer term for domestic supply chains but not an immediate stock catalyst. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares (~$5.1M), reducing his disclosed holding — an insider sale that can trigger short-term profit-taking even if the stake remains large. Read More.

Western Digital Stock Down 3.4%

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $200.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $141.50. The firm has a market cap of $88.21 billion, a PE ratio of 26.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be 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 is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in Western Digital by 7.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,698,000 after buying an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Western Digital by 229.7% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 967 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $307,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in Western Digital by 2.6% in the second quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 46,586 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,981,000 after purchasing an additional 1,191 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter worth about $83,000. 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.