Cynthia Tregillis Sells 214 Shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 214 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.11, for a total transaction of $61,227.54. Following the sale, the insider owned 133,781 shares in the company, valued at $38,276,081.91. This trade represents a 0.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Western Digital Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of Western Digital stock traded down $2.55 on Friday, hitting $279.70. The company had a trading volume of 9,889,130 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,602,297. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $236.61 and a 200-day moving average of $164.14. 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 Corporation has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $309.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.05, a P/E/G ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.80.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. ORG Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 86.9% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% in the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.