Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 4.5% – Should You Sell?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) dropped 4.5% during trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $176.75 and last traded at $173.0150. Approximately 1,510,300 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 8,372,998 shares. The stock had previously closed at $181.08.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $125.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $150.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Mizuho set a $180.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $173.65.

Western Digital Trading Up 0.8%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.45 billion, a PE ratio of 26.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.82. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $154.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $107.74.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter. Western Digital had a net margin of 21.37% and a return on equity of 30.89%. The firm had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.28%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 144,596 shares in the company, valued at $23,217,779.72. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total value of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. The trade was a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth $791,317,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth about $220,680,000. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its position in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 130.0% in the first quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 5,029,359 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $203,337,000 after buying an additional 2,842,822 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.