SVB Wealth LLC Buys Shares of 742 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

SVB Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 742 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Western Digital by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,737,000 after buying an additional 402,981 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital Trading Up 4.9%

WDC stock opened at $675.39 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $62.53 and a 1 year high of $799.87. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $513.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.93. The firm has a market cap of $232.79 billion, a PE ratio of 40.32 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 during 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 for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior 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, analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s strong quarter is being treated as a read-through for the entire memory/storage group, with investors betting that AI infrastructure demand will keep Western Digital’s business environment favorable. Western Digital Stock And Seagate Get Boost From Big Micron Earnings Beat
• Positive Sentiment: Reports highlighted that AI-related memory demand is outpacing supply, which could support better pricing and margins for Western Digital if current trends continue. AI boom keeps memory chip makers in sweet spot, says expert
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentators said Micron’s results helped “justify elevated valuations” across memory names, fueling a sector-wide rally that included Western Digital. Sandisk, Western Digital, and others soar as Micron results ‘justify elevated valuations’
• Neutral Sentiment: Technical commentary noted a hammer pattern and improving earnings estimate revisions for WDC, which may be supporting bullish sentiment but is not a fundamental catalyst by itself. Here’s Why Western Digital (WDC) Is a Great ‘Buy the Bottom’ Stock Now

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $450.46.

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.