Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Acquired by Wealthfront Advisers LLC

Wealthfront Advisers LLC increased its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 37.5% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 45,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,506 shares during the quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $12,403,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position 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 worth $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 229.7% in the first 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 period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 55.3% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $152,000 after buying an additional 845 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,640,420.80. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $466.81 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $560.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $383.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.90 billion, a PE ratio of 27.87 and a beta of 2.11. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $66.04 and a 12-month high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 3.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Fox Advisors downgraded Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $520.32.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Negative Sentiment: Western Digital is falling with other memory and storage stocks such as Micron, SanDisk, Seagate, and SK Hynix as traders take profits after a sharp run-up in AI-related names. Nasdaq Slips as Chip Stocks Come Under Pressure
• Negative Sentiment: Sentiment weakened further after reports of a large Shanghai IPO filing by Chinese memory rival CXMT, which raised fears of new competition in an already crowded market. Why Is Western Digital Stock Falling on Thursday?
• Neutral Sentiment: Despite the selloff, some analysts still argue that AI storage demand remains a strong long-term tailwind for Western Digital and that the recent weakness may be more about near-term profit-taking than a deterioration in fundamentals. Everyone’s Buying NVIDIA, but 2 Smaller AI Stocks Could Soar Higher
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent bullish coverage also points to Western Digital’s strong revenue growth, expanding margins, and earnings beat, which could help limit downside if investors refocus on fundamentals. Which Storage Stock Is Best Positioned to Win the AI Memory War?

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.