Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 3.4% on Insider Selling

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) were down 3.4% during mid-day trading on Thursday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $254.91 and last traded at $260.19. Approximately 10,521,696 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 4% from the average daily volume of 10,935,140 shares. The stock had previously closed at $269.41.

Specifically, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday. Finally, China Renaissance started coverage on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $262.25.

Western Digital News Summary

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.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $202.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $142.32. The firm has a market cap of $88.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.10, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

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

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.