Western Digital Corporation $WDC Holdings Cut by Beta Wealth Group Inc.

Beta Wealth Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 60.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,800 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,300 shares during the period. Beta Wealth Group Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $482,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,244,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 399.8% in the third quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,900,000 after buying an additional 25,987 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 75.4% in the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,778,000 after buying an additional 4,068 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,270,000. Finally, WESPAC Advisors LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $793,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on Western Digital from $530 to $650 and reiterated an overweight rating, signaling more upside potential for the shares. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company announced a Sandisk share exchange with institutional investors, a move that has been interpreted as supportive of the stock and part of a broader capital strategy. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital highlighted AI-focused storage innovation at Computex, reinforcing the market’s view that it is well positioned to benefit from data-center and AI infrastructure spending. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts also pointed to strong free cash flow, a larger dividend, and a new $4 billion buyback plan, which supports the investment case by showing confidence in cash generation and shareholder returns. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital has been outperforming the broader market over the past year, and brokerages still generally rate the stock a moderate buy, which supports sentiment but is more of a confirmation than a new catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One recent market note said WDC slipped with the broader market after a hotter-than-expected CPI report revived rate-hike concerns, showing that macro pressure can still weigh on the stock at times. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on WDC shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on shares of Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $443.71.

Western Digital Stock Up 6.4%

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $562.92 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $447.23 and its 200-day moving average is $307.91. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $54.60 and a 12 month high of $602.54. The firm has a market cap of $194.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.61 and a beta of 2.13.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 3.58%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company 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.