Irving Tan Sells 20,000 Shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Western Digital Stock Down 3.4%

WDC stock opened at $260.19 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $202.97 and a 200-day moving average of $142.32. 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 market capitalization of $88.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.10, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.80. 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 data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for 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%. The company’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Board approved an additional $4 billion share repurchase program, which supports share price by reducing float and signals management confidence. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Company held Innovation Day and unveiled an AI-focused HDD/roadmap (path to 100TB+ drives and High Bandwidth Drive tech) that reinforces WDC’s role in AI data infrastructure and bolsters the long-term demand thesis. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent results and guidance showed revenue and margin strength, supporting the “memory supercycle” thesis (durable demand for high‑capacity drives), which underpins bullish analyst revisions. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Several firms raised price targets and reiterated buys (examples: Mizuho, Rosenblatt), lifting sentiment and feeding momentum into the stock ahead of today’s pullback. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: SanDisk (spun off from WDC) is rallying sharply and remains very volatile; the sector rotation into memory benefits WDC but also concentrates exposure to cyclical swings. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro/policy moves (U.S. push to secure critical minerals) could support domestic supply chains longer term but are not an immediate stock catalyst. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares (~$5.1M), a disclosed insider sale that may have prompted short-term profit‑taking or signaled a window for selling after the recent run. Read More.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on WDC shares. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 31st. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Benchmark increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $262.25.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $791,317,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter valued at about $220,680,000. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth about $221,800,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Western Digital

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.