Western Digital Corporation $WDC Position Trimmed by Parnassus Investments LLC

Parnassus Investments LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 41.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 523,497 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 375,363 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $90,183,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Western Digital by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,196,484,000 after purchasing an additional 243,177 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake 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 valued at $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake 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 valued at $456,737,000 after purchasing an additional 402,981 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital and related memory stocks rebounded as investors rotated back into the group following SK Hynix’s capacity plan, which helped sentiment across the storage space. SanDisk Jumps 14%, Western Digital Climbs 6% as Memory Stocks Rebound on SK Hynix’s Capacity Plan
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive on WDC, with recent price target increases from Mizuho and Citi reinforcing expectations for continued AI-driven storage demand and stronger earnings estimates. Mizuho and Citi Raise Western Digital (WDC) Price Targets
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s stock has also benefited from ongoing investor optimism around AI storage demand, pricing gains, and its more focused HDD-centric business mix. Western Digital Stock Skyrockets 185% YTD: Is More Growth on the Horizon?
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital announced a privately negotiated share exchange involving SanDisk investors, which may affect the company’s capital structure but is not clearly a direct earnings driver yet. Western Digital Announces Sandisk Share Exchange With Investors
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent broker commentary has kept WDC at a “Moderate Buy,” supporting the stock but largely confirming already positive sentiment rather than adding a new catalyst. Western Digital Corporation Receives Consensus Rating of Moderate Buy from Brokerages

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $433.29.

Western Digital Stock Up 8.0%

Western Digital stock opened at $529.29 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $441.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $306.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $182.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.60 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $54.60 and a 52-week high of $602.54.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 3.58%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 90,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,905,270.79. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Company 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.