Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 2% – What’s Next?

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) were down 2% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $454.33 and last traded at $459.44. 4,326,401 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 51% from the average daily volume of 8,882,770 shares. The stock had previously closed at $469.05.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Summit Insights downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Down 2.0%

The company has a market cap of $158.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $554.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $433.12.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The company’s revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,663,290.57. The trade was a 0.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 24,679 shares of company stock worth $11,451,605 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 45.5% in the second quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.