LSV Asset Management Sells 766,800 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

LSV Asset Management reduced its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 50.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 744,412 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 766,800 shares during the quarter. LSV Asset Management’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $128,240,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased 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 buying an additional 3,019 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 229.7% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 55.3% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 845 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the topic of several research reports. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $405.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Mizuho set a $470.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $395.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total transaction of $2,071,470.06. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at $39,905,270.79. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 53,785 shares of company stock worth $18,097,954 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $484.28 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $373.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $268.41. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $49.00 and a one year high of $525.15. The company has a market cap of $166.92 billion, a PE ratio of 28.91 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 3.58%.

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.