Sanctuary Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 56,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $36,151,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 3,019 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Western Digital by 229.7% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 967 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 55.3% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 845 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,663,290.57. The trade was a 0.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $900.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $676.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Fox Advisors downgraded Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC stock opened at $459.44 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $552.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $434.46. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $74.57 and a one year high of $799.87. The company has a market capitalization of $158.36 billion, a PE ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 2.48%.

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.