California State Teachers Retirement System Sells 20,088 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

California State Teachers Retirement System lowered its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 3.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 524,436 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 20,088 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $141,855,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the period. Avion Wealth increased its position in Western Digital by 163.8% during the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the period. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, BOKF NA boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 6,700.0% in the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was 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 directly owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at $39,905,270.79. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 29,767 shares of company stock valued at $13,059,607. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. Wall Street Zen raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $560.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $520.32.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure remains a major long-term growth driver. Western Digital supplies high-capacity hard drives used by cloud providers, and rising AI-generated data is supporting strong demand, tight supply and pricing power. 2 AI Stocks That Beat NVIDIA – and Could Soar Even Higher
• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush raised its price targets for Western Digital and Seagate ahead of earnings, while other analysts remain bullish. Morgan Stanley reportedly set a $650 target and Citigroup maintained an $800 target, suggesting analysts view the selloff as potentially excessive if demand and margins remain strong. Seagate and Western Digital in Focus as Wedbush Raises Price Targets
• Positive Sentiment: Investment commentary highlighted Western Digital’s strong hard-drive demand and tighter supply, reinforcing the company’s improving revenue, margins and cash-generation outlook. Western Digital Surged on Strong Hard Drive Demand and Tighter Supply
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital’s Aug. 5 earnings report is the next major catalyst. Investors will focus on gross margins, pricing, supply conditions and guidance to determine whether AI demand is still translating into higher profitability. Western Digital’s Earnings Will Test Whether Its AI Rally Has More Room
• Negative Sentiment: The broader AI memory trade is unwinding, with investors reducing exposure to chip and storage companies amid a shaky risk appetite and expectations that market volatility could persist. Western Digital has also retreated substantially from its June peak, increasing concern that valuation expectations had moved too far ahead of fundamentals. The AI Memory Trade Is Crumbling
• Negative Sentiment: China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies’ highly successful IPO and advances in Chinese AI technology are raising concerns about future competition and whether the current memory and storage supply shortage can persist. CXMT’s Blockbuster IPO Hits Memory Stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares worth approximately $428,000 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. The transaction was small relative to her remaining holdings, so it is a limited but slightly negative sentiment signal.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $463.51 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $565.84 and a 200-day moving average of $402.35. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $69.30 and a 52 week high of $799.87. The company has a market capitalization of $159.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.67 and a beta of 2.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 EPS for the current year.

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.