Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.17

Key Points

• Western Digital raised its quarterly dividend 16.7% to $0.175 per share, payable December 17 to shareholders of record on December 4. The dividend represents $0.70 annually and a 0.2% yield.
• The company reported quarterly EPS of $4.64, beating estimates of $4.11, while revenue rose 55.5% year over year to $4.38 billion.
• Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating, with an average price target of $599.37, although individual targets and ratings vary.

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.1750 per share by the data storage provider on Thursday, December 17th. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 4th. This is a 16.7% increase from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Western Digital has a dividend payout ratio of 11.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Western Digital to earn $34.27 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 1.8%.

Western Digital Price Performance

NASDAQ WDC opened at $354.19 on Friday. Western Digital has a 12 month low of $121.71 and a 12 month high of $799.87. The company has a 50-day moving average of $435.48 and a 200-day moving average of $480.46. The company has a market cap of $132.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 2.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $0.53. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The business had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.14 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.78 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 55.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 19.69 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho set a $590.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley set a $668.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Western Digital from $730.00 to $450.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Western Digital from $590.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Summit Insights cut Western Digital from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $599.37.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation NASDAQ: WDC is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.

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