Insider Selling: Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Director Sells $9,616,638.18 in Stock

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Director Matthew Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the company’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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Western Digital Stock Up 8.6%

WDC opened at $282.58 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $205.35 and a 200-day moving average of $144.87. The company has a market capitalization of $95.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.80. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $28.83 and a fifty-two week high of $296.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.77 earnings per share. Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be given a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on WDC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. New Street Research set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Citigroup boosted their price target on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, China Renaissance began coverage on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $193.00 target price on the stock. One equities research 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 102.5% in the second quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 399 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 86.9% in the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

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.