Private Advisory Group LLC Takes Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Private Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 18,135 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,583,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. BOKF NA boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 6,700.0% during the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPL Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Sector rally supports WDC. SanDisk’s bullish long-term growth targets, including expectations for sustained flash-memory demand, boosted sentiment toward storage companies. Western Digital benefited from the read-through, particularly as investors anticipate continued AI infrastructure spending on HDD and NAND storage. SanDisk outlook article
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and quantitative signals improved. Zacks upgraded Western Digital to Rank #1, or “Strong Buy,” citing improving earnings prospects. WDC was also included among Zacks’ top momentum stocks, while JPMorgan reportedly raised its price target to $650. Zacks upgrade article
• Positive Sentiment: Recent results provide fundamental support. Western Digital’s latest quarter exceeded consensus estimates for both earnings and revenue, with revenue rising 43.8% year over year. Stronger pricing, high-capacity drive demand and AI-driven storage requirements are supporting expectations for continued growth. WDC sector rally article
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional positioning is mixed: JPMorgan and Capital World Investors added shares, while several large investors reduced holdings. The conflicting activity does not establish a clear institutional trend.
• Negative Sentiment: Elevated expectations remain a risk. Despite the earnings beat, WDC shares previously fell sharply because management’s guidance did not exceed demanding investor expectations. Concerns remain about moderating sequential growth, NAND pricing volatility and whether the AI-driven storage cycle has peaked. WDC earnings reaction article
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling may weigh on sentiment. CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares for approximately $8.9 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. Broader data shows substantial insider selling and no reported insider purchases during the past six months. CEO insider sale article

Western Digital Stock Up 4.4%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $508.80 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $73.14 and a 12-month high of $799.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02 and a beta of 2.14. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $556.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $425.47.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 presently 2.48%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 25,093 shares of company stock valued at $11,650,737 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on WDC. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price target on shares of Western Digital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Western Digital from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 target price on Western Digital in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and five have given 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 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.