Insider Selling: Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Insider Sells $1,833,922.20 in Stock

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $1,833,922.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 136,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,932,163.62. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Western Digital Trading Up 8.6%

WDC opened at $282.58 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $205.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $144.87. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year 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. The stock has a market cap of $95.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced 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 company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Western Digital News Roundup

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

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 229.7% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter worth about $307,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $83,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $286,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WDC shares. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. UBS Group set a $306.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 30th. China Renaissance assumed coverage on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

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.