Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $227.66 and last traded at $226.8960, with a volume of 744362 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $215.00.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $90.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $180.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. China Renaissance initiated coverage on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird set a $180.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on Western Digital from $125.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $189.05.

Western Digital Trading Down 0.3%

The stock has a market capitalization of $75.73 billion, a PE ratio of 32.24, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.78. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $175.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $124.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 4th were issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 7.28%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total value of $449,756.57. Following the sale, the insider owned 144,596 shares in the company, valued at $23,217,779.72. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785. Corporate 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 modified their holdings of WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter worth $791,317,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at $220,680,000. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd 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 bought a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $221,800,000. Hedge funds and other 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.