Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 4.3% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) rose 4.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $272.76 and last traded at $261.30. Approximately 9,663,996 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 8% from the average daily volume of 10,488,640 shares. The stock had previously closed at $250.61.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Argus set a $300.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. UBS Group set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. One investment 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Trading Up 4.3%

The company has a market cap of $88.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.21, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $241.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $169.42.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 64,805 shares of company stock worth $16,846,612 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $791,317,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $221,800,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.