Plato Investment Management Ltd Makes New $5.05 Million Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Plato Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 7,949 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,048,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 28.6% in the second quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 90 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.0% during the second quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 2,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,470,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the period. Everpar Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $921,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 45.5% in the 2nd quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC boosted its stake in Western Digital by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 1,390 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $888,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 25,093 shares of company stock valued at $11,650,737 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price target on Western Digital and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $676.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities lowered their target price on Western Digital from $900.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Price Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $508.80 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $556.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $426.77. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $73.14 and a 12 month high of $799.87. The stock has a market cap of $175.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02 and a beta of 2.14.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.48%.

Western Digital 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.