SMART Wealth LLC Buys New Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

SMART Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 6,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,838,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WDC. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 11.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,737,000 after purchasing an additional 402,981 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its position in Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its position in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade 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 sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 in the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Melius Research initiated coverage of Western Digital with a Buy rating and a price target implying significant upside, boosting investor confidence in the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts highlighted about 55% upside for Western Digital and noted bullish options flow, with call buying outpacing put buying, suggesting traders are positioning for further gains. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital has been screening as a top momentum name in AI infrastructure, helped by strong earnings trends and continued demand tied to storage needs. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent market commentary says Western Digital remains in a strong bullish trend and is trading well above its 200-day moving average, which supports the stock technically but does not add a major new catalyst. Article Title

Western Digital Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $638.72 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $529.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $352.48. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $62.94 and a 1-year high of $799.87. The firm has a market cap of $220.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.13 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The business’s revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. 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 $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 3.58%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup boosted their target price on Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.04.

Western Digital 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.