Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eighteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $395.8261.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on WDC. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Mizuho set a $470.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st.

Western Digital Stock Down 0.4%

WDC opened at $484.28 on Friday. Western Digital has a twelve month low of $49.00 and a twelve month high of $525.15. The company has a fifty day moving average of $373.02 and a 200-day moving average of $268.41. The stock has a market cap of $166.92 billion, a PE ratio of 28.91 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 3.58%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 53,785 shares of company stock worth $18,097,954. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 9.2% during the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 33.3% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 132 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 4,707 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $811,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.1% during the first quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 3,782 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,023,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadcap Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.