Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 3.8% – What’s Next?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) was up 3.8% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $307.50 and last traded at $284.10. Approximately 13,524,121 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 26% from the average daily volume of 10,748,240 shares. The stock had previously closed at $273.74.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on WDC. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. China Renaissance initiated coverage on Western Digital in a research note on Friday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $193.00 target price on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $96.32 billion, a PE ratio of 28.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business’s fifty day moving average is $212.21 and its 200-day moving average is $148.64.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rossby Financial LCC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 4,818.2% during the 4th quarter. Rossby Financial LCC now owns 541 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $93,000 after buying an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $318,000. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $427,000. Brooklyn Investment Group grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 5,967 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,072,000 after purchasing an additional 658 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 257.8% in the fourth quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 26,368 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,542,000 after purchasing an additional 18,999 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.