Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at $32,643,630.14. This trade represents a 7.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.
Western Digital Stock Performance
NASDAQ WDC traded down $2.27 on Thursday, hitting $259.03. 6,283,072 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,433,089. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $245.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $170.68. The firm has a market cap of $87.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.76. 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 Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $28.83 and a fifty-two week high of $309.90.
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The company had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.
Western Digital Dividend Announcement
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued 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 payout ratio is 5.02%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several equities analysts recently commented on WDC shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Western Digital from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, February 21st. New Street Research set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $265.58.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on WDC
Trending Headlines about Western Digital
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Institutional Trading of Western Digital
Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Western Digital by 0.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $5,196,484,000 after buying an additional 243,177 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $593,045,000 after purchasing an additional 186,030 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter worth about $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $354,247,000 after acquiring an additional 431,419 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company's stock.
Western Digital Company Profile
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Get Free Report)
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.
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