Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.15

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of 0.15 per share by the data storage provider on Thursday, September 17th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th.

Western Digital has raised its dividend by an average of 0.6%per year over the last three years. Western Digital has a payout ratio of 11.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Western Digital to earn $17.77 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 3.4%.

Western Digital Stock Down 5.4%

WDC opened at $519.17 on Thursday. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $73.14 and a 12-month high of $799.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.00 and a beta of 2.14. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $569.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $415.61.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.66 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital reported adjusted fourth-quarter EPS of $3.56, above the $3.31 consensus estimate, while revenue increased 43.8% year over year to $3.75 billion, also exceeding expectations. Profit more than11-fold from the prior-year quarter. Western Digital Q4 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management said AI customers are negotiating storage capacity agreements extending through 2031, suggesting strong long-term visibility for hard-drive demand tied to data-center expansion. Western Digital Says AI Customers Are Negotiating Storage Deals Through 2031
• Positive Sentiment: Robert W. Baird maintained a Buy rating and raised its price target to $630 from $450, citing AI-supported HDD strength and improving profitability. Western Digital Earns Buy Rating as Analyst Lifts Price Target
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share, payable September 17 to shareholders of record September 8. The approximately 0.1% yield is unlikely to be a major share-price catalyst.
• Negative Sentiment: First-quarter fiscal 2027 guidance calls for EPS of $3.85–$4.15 and revenue of $4.0–$4.2 billion, both above published consensus estimates. However, investors viewed the outlook as disappointing relative to elevated expectations for AI-related growth, triggering declines across storage stocks including SanDisk and Western Digital. Sandisk and Western Digital Drag on Chip Stocks as Lofty Expectations Eclipse Strong Earnings

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.