Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Director Matthew Massengill Sells 36,926 Shares

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Director Matthew Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Western Digital Price Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $282.58 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $95.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.80. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $205.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $143.80. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $296.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. Western Digital’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 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company 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 is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Key Western Digital News

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 institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WDC. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,196,484,000 after purchasing an additional 243,177 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $593,045,000 after buying an additional 186,030 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 8.5% in the second quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $354,247,000 after acquiring an additional 431,419 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after acquiring an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.