Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 3.5% – Here’s What Happened

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) traded down 3.5% on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $267.85 and last traded at $270.57. 8,594,210 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 19% from the average session volume of 10,569,418 shares. The stock had previously closed at $280.42.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Citigroup upped their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One investment 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 MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $230.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $161.03. 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 company has a market capitalization of $91.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.79.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 66,954 shares of company stock valued at $17,111,480. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,196,484,000 after acquiring an additional 243,177 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $593,045,000 after purchasing an additional 186,030 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 8.5% during the second quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $354,247,000 after buying an additional 431,419 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth about $788,729,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.