Insider Selling: Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Director Sells $9,616,638.18 in Stock

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Director Matthew Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock traded up $22.39 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $282.58. The company had a trading volume of 9,894,577 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,900,505. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $202.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $142.32. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $296.50. The stock has a market cap of $95.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. Western Digital’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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. 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 dividend payout ratio is 5.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Mizuho increased their price objective on Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Loop Capital lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Argus set a $300.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Board approved an incremental $4 billion share-repurchase program — a large, explicit capital-return move that supports demand for the stock and signals confidence from the board. Reuters: Western Digital adds $4 billion to buyback plan
• Positive Sentiment: Innovation Day unveiled an AI-focused storage roadmap (claims of up to 8x performance improvements and path to 100TB+ HDDs), reinforcing WDC’s positioning in AI training/data-center storage — supports longer-term demand expectations. PCWorld: WD maps out 8x performance boosts
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst community is upgrading WDC and lifting targets (several notes to Buy/Overweight and new street-high targets), which fuels short-term momentum and buy-side interest. Barchart: New street-high price target
• Positive Sentiment: Recent quarterly results beat estimates (revenue and EPS strength) and reinforce the “memory supercycle” / AI-driven storage demand thesis — supports earnings growth expectations. Zacks: WDC is up 5.85% in one week
• Neutral Sentiment: Sandisk’s dramatic rally (spun out from WDC) is lifting sentiment across the memory/storage complex — helpful for WDC thematically but also highlights increased sector volatility and comparatives. MarketBeat: Sandisk’s Swings Are Getting Bigger
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader policy moves to secure supply chains for critical minerals are supportive over the long run for domestic hardware supply, but they are not an immediate stock catalyst. MarketBeat: Critical minerals policy
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares (~$5.1M) in early February (SEC filing) — an insider sale that can prompt some near-term profit-taking despite his continued large ownership. SEC filing: Insider sale disclosure

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Western Digital by 229.7% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter worth about $307,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $83,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $286,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.