Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Declares $0.10 Quarterly Dividend

Key Points

• Western Digital Corporation announced a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share, which will be paid to shareholders of record on September 4th, representing an annualized dividend of $0.40 and a yield of 0.56%.
• The company also reported quarterly earnings of $1.51 per share, exceeding analyst expectations, with a forecasted earnings per share of $8.15 for the next year.
• Western Digital's board approved a stock repurchase plan allowing the company to buy back $2.00 billion in shares, indicating confidence in the company's value.

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 30th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a dividend of 0.10 per share by the data storage provider on Thursday, September 18th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th.

Western Digital has a dividend payout ratio of 7.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Western Digital to earn $8.15 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 4.9%.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock traded down $2.14 during trading on Friday, hitting $76.55. The company had a trading volume of 8,789,013 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,140,905. Western Digital has a fifty-two week low of $28.83 and a fifty-two week high of $78.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.86 and a beta of 1.58. The business has a 50 day moving average of $62.22 and a 200 day moving average of $53.90.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $2.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 14.13% and a return on equity of 24.93%. Western Digital's revenue was up 30.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WDC. UBS Group upped their target price on Western Digital from $45.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Citigroup increased their price target on Western Digital from $78.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Summit Insights upgraded shares of Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Loop Capital reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Western Digital from $50.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $78.74.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells data storage devices and solutions in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, rest of Asia, and internationally. It offers client devices, including hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) for desktop and notebook personal computers (PCs), gaming consoles, and set top boxes; and flash-based embedded storage products for mobile phones, tablets, notebook PCs, and other portable and wearable devices, as well as automotive, Internet of Things, industrial, and connected home applications.