Cynthia Tregillis Sells 308 Shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 308 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.70, for a total transaction of $86,763.60. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 134,759 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,961,610.30. The trade was a 0.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $290.95 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $234.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $163.31. 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 stock has a market cap of $98.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.18, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.80. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $309.90.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for 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 company’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 5.02%.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized an additional $4.0B buyback and signaled confidence in cash generation — a clear demand driver and near‑term support for the stock. QuiverQuant: Buyback expansion and bullish catalysts
• Positive Sentiment: Company outlined an AI‑era HDD roadmap (40TB UltraSMR in customer qualification; path to 100TB+ HAMR by 2029) that supports higher long‑term TAM and premium data‑center positioning. QuiverQuant: HDD roadmap
• Positive Sentiment: Balance‑sheet cleanup — sale/exchange of part of the remaining SanDisk stake tied to debt reduction — reduces leverage risk and signals management is monetizing non‑core assets. QuiverQuant: Balance‑sheet actions
• Neutral Sentiment: Relaunch of the consumer G‑DRIVE brand could support external storage sales and brand visibility, but it’s a smaller, longer‑lead commercial benefit versus the enterprise HDD narrative. MSN: WDC to relaunch G‑DRIVE
• Negative Sentiment: Citron launched a public short call focused on SanDisk (SNDK), arguing the NAND cycle may be near a peak and flagging WDC’s exit from SanDisk as a cautionary signal — this can pressure sentiment around NAND exposure and raise questions about cycle timing. Yahoo Finance: Citron short call
• Negative Sentiment: Insider sales (Cynthia L. Tregillis sold small blocks on Feb. 23–24) were disclosed; amounts are modest relative to holdings but can amplify selling pressure or negative headlines on a down‑day. InsiderTrades: Insider selling

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SYM FINANCIAL Corp bought a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at $225,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $6,281,000 after buying an additional 5,731 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $641,000. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at about $636,000. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 7.1% during the second quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 118,888 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,594,000 after acquiring an additional 7,913 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Benchmark upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. UBS Group set a $306.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

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.