Romano Brothers AND Company Cuts Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Romano Brothers AND Company lowered its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 23.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,226 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,656 shares during the quarter. Romano Brothers AND Company’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $2,623,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. 44 Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 0.8% during the third quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,329 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,120,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 7.1% during the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $154,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 47.8% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $430,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bogart Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 57.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 309 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $275.34 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $272.75 and its 200 day moving average is $193.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $319.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $93.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.62, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.76.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total transaction of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Mizuho boosted their price target on Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. UBS Group set a $306.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 30th. China Renaissance initiated coverage on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price target for the company. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Cloud growth and margin upside highlighted as a key thesis for WDC’s next leg of revenue and margin expansion. Western Digital: Cloud Key Driver To Growth And Margins
• Positive Sentiment: Technical market action: a recent trading signal coincided with a rebound in WDC shares, supporting near-term momentum. Western Digital Shares Rebound, Climb 3% After Key Trading Signal
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst comparisons favor WDC over peers like NetApp on AI-driven storage demand and cash returns, reinforcing buy-case narratives. Western Digital vs. NetApp: Which Data Storage Stock is the Better Buy?
• Positive Sentiment: WD is part of an open-source quantum error correction collaboration (OQD + QuScript), signaling R&D breadth that may support longer-term enterprise opportunities. OQD Launches Open-Source Collaboration with WD and QuScript to Advance Quantum Error Correction
• Neutral Sentiment: Retail promotions and deep discounts on WD-branded SSDs/HDDs (Amazon/Best Buy sales) could boost volume but also reflect aggressive consumer pricing. Upgrade your NAS storage with this WD 2TB SSD – now $240 off during Amazon’s Spring Sale
• Negative Sentiment: Google’s new TurboQuant algorithm has raised investor concerns that AI models could require materially less memory, potentially reducing hardware demand long-term. Google Just Unveiled TurboQuant: Should You Sell Sandisk Stock Now?
• Negative Sentiment: Sector reaction and a Micron selloff reflect investor skepticism about how sustainable AI-driven memory demand will be if efficiency improvements proliferate. Micron Drop Raises A Bigger AI Question
• Negative Sentiment: Broader market and interest-rate concerns are pressuring computer and memory stocks generally, tempering upside for WDC despite company-level positives. SNDK, WDC and STX Forecasts – Computer Companies Fall with Everything Else

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.