Insider Selling: Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Insider Sells $36,897.90 in Stock

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 130 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.83, for a total value of $36,897.90. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 135,067 shares in the company, valued at $38,336,066.61. This represents a 0.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock opened at $282.25 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $309.90. The company has a market capitalization of $95.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.31, a PEG ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $236.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $164.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.77 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Key Western Digital News

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized an additional $4.0 billion share repurchase and flagged an AI/data-center HDD roadmap (40TB UltraSMR in customer qualification; path to 100TB+ HAMR). That buyback plus AI positioning drove the recent rally. QuiverQuant: Buyback expansion and AI-era HDD roadmap
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks added WDC to its top growth/momentum lists and published bullish commentary — reinforcing short-term investor interest and buy-side flows into WDC as an AI/data-center beneficiary. Zacks: Momentum Stock Note
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks also added WDC to its Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) growth stocks list, a spotlight that can attract momentum-focused flows. Zacks: Best Growth Stocks to Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital plans to relaunch its G-DRIVE external storage brand — a product/marketing initiative that supports consumer positioning but is not an immediate earnings catalyst. MSN: G-DRIVE Relaunch
• Neutral Sentiment: Small insider sale disclosed (Cynthia Tregillis sold ~130 shares) — immaterial size but often highlighted by media during volatile sessions. SEC Filing: Insider Sale
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that WDC is exiting most of its remaining SanDisk stake via secondary sale / exchange have raised concerns about added share supply and a focus on balance-sheet cleanup rather than buybacks — a key near-term overhang. Yahoo Finance: SanDisk stake sale and balance-sheet actions
• Negative Sentiment: Citron Research launched a short call focused on Sandisk / the NAND cycle and highlighted WDC’s SanDisk exit as a potential warning — the report can amplify downside while investors digest valuation and cycle risk. Yahoo Finance: Citron Short on Sandisk

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 124.5% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 86.9% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on WDC shares. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

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.