LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. Boosts Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. increased its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 325.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 68,870 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 52,670 shares during the period. Western Digital makes up about 0.8% of LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $18,629,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Western Digital by 9.2% in the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 4,707 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $811,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.1% in the first quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 3,782 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,023,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,982 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $341,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on WDC. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Fox Advisors downgraded shares of Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Bank of America raised their target price on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $508.32.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts turned more bullish on Western Digital, with reports highlighting strong AI storage demand and multiple price-target hikes, including Susquehanna’s increase to $500 and broader Wall Street optimism. Seagate Stock Rises After Analyst Upgrades To Buy. Western Digital Nabs Price-Target Hike.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent articles say WDC is benefiting from a rebound in memory and storage stocks as investors regain confidence in AI infrastructure spending and storage demand. Western Digital and Seagate Surge 7%, Micron and SanDisk Climb 6% as Memory Selloff Reverses
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks and other commentary continue to frame Western Digital as an AI infrastructure winner, citing strong revenue growth, margin expansion, and an improved outlook for future earnings. Micron & One AI Infrastructure Stock to Buy Now for Big Upside
• Neutral Sentiment: One item flagged an apparent short-interest update showing zero shares reported, but the data appears unusual and is unlikely to be a meaningful trading signal on its own.
• Negative Sentiment: Some valuation-focused commentary suggests the stock may be getting expensive on earnings metrics even after its strong run, which could limit upside if growth expectations cool. Western Digital (WDC) Stock Looks Cheap On Cash Flow But Rich On Earnings

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC traded up $4.54 on Friday, hitting $582.59. The company had a trading volume of 4,801,298 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,095,433. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $555.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $372.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $200.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.78 and a beta of 2.11. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $64.23 and a 52-week high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its 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 return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The business’s revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 3.58%.

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.