Western Digital Corporation $WDC Stock: National Wealth Management Group LLC Trims Stake

National Wealth Management Group LLC cut its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 40.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,931 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,017 shares during the period. National Wealth Management Group LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,332,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter worth about $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter worth about $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd acquired a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 182.6% during the third quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 65 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 807 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $380.00, for a total transaction of $306,660.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 108,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,392,640. The trade was a 0.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 over the last 90 days. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings cut Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Western Digital from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on Western Digital from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Susquehanna set a $405.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.04.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: A Bank of America note said memory customers are locking in supply for multiple years, lifting the broader memory and storage group. Western Digital benefited alongside Micron and SanDisk as investors anticipated stronger pricing and demand. Bank of America memory-market article
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital CEO Irving Tan said AI-related storage demand could grow about 25% annually and expressed confidence that the company can expand margins despite data-center cost concerns. Western Digital CEO AI-demand article
• Positive Sentiment: The company raised its quarterly dividend by 16.7% following strong fiscal first-quarter results, reinforcing the case for improving cash generation. Western Digital dividend increase article
• Positive Sentiment: Argus maintained a Buy rating despite lowering its price target to $500, while several bullish analyses cited strong earnings, robust cloud demand and favorable storage pricing. Argus Western Digital rating

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $356.13 on Tuesday. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $121.85 and a 1 year high of $799.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $429.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $413.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $133.31 billion, a PE ratio of 13.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 2.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 55.62% and a net margin of 69.20%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 55.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.78 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 4th will be issued a $0.1750 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 4th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.33%.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.