Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by Prospera Financial Services Inc

Prospera Financial Services Inc reduced its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 33.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 25,575 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 13,004 shares during the quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $4,406,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 551.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Avion Wealth grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 163.8% during the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 207.0% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the transaction, the insider owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% 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 53,347 shares of company stock worth $17,974,293 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $484.28 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $377.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $271.52. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $49.00 and a 52-week high of $525.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.91 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, equities 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.99%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WDC. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Western Digital from $335.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Bank of America raised their target price on Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $488.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $395.83.

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.