Gries Financial LLC Acquires Shares of 2,333 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Gries Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,333 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $280,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Private Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 102.5% during the second quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 399 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC grew its position 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 worth $28,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, CNB Bank bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth about $37,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, December 29th. Mizuho set a $180.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays upped their price target on Western Digital from $105.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Western Digital to $228.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on Western Digital from $90.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. One research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $173.65.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the sale, the insider owned 144,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,217,779.72. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC stock opened at $219.38 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $166.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $116.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $221.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.01 billion, a PE ratio of 31.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.78.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a $0.125 dividend. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 7.28%.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Jensen Huang (NVIDIA) gave a bullish outlook on the memory sector, helping push WDC to a new all-time high as investors rotate into AI/data-storage beneficiaries. Catalyst: optimism about AI training demand and higher memory spend across cloud/data centers. Western Digital (WDC) Soars to All-Time High as Nvidia CEO Posts Bullish Outlook
• Positive Sentiment: Broader memory-stock rally narrative (price moves at SK Hynix/Samsung, investor videos highlighting MU/WDC/STX) is lifting expectations for stronger industry pricing and volume — a direct tailwind for WDC’s revenue and margin outlook. Boom Before Bust? MU, WDC, STX & SNDK Lead Memory Chip Rally
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts/commentary that named WDC among 2025’s top S&P 500 performers adds credibility to the bull case and can attract momentum/chaser flows. S&P 500’s Top Stock of 2025: Western Digital
• Neutral Sentiment: SanDisk (WD’s consumer SSD brand) is rebranding WD_BLACK and WD_Blue to “Optimus” across product lines announced at CES. This is largely a marketing/product-stack change — could be neutral for near-term revenues but matters for long-term consumer brand recognition. SSDs: WD Black and WD Blue are history
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple outlets covered the Optimus rebrand and retail discounts (e.g., 8TB WD_Black PS5 deal); promotions may boost short-term consumer sales but are unlikely to reshape WDC’s enterprise-facing revenue mix. The 8TB WD_Black M.2 SSD for PS5 is on a major discount at Amazon
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation-watch pieces note a sharp 90-day rally in WDC shares; higher multiples increase sensitivity to any earnings shortfall. This raises risk despite positive industry signals. Western Digital (WDC) Valuation Check After Sharp 90 Day Share Price Rally
• Negative Sentiment: Some market commentators (The Motley Fool) warn to “sell into today’s rally,” cautioning that the move may be extended and recommending taking profits — a view that could limit further near-term upside if adopted broadly. Why Western Digital Stock Popped Today

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.