Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 14,090 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,999,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WDC. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased 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 during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $885,565,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 1st quarter worth approximately $350,403,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $496.16 on Wednesday. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $73.14 and a fifty-two week high of $799.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $556.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $430.29. The company has a market cap of $171.02 billion, a PE ratio of 20.49 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted 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 company had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The business’s revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.66 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 currently 2.48%.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital continues to benefit from improving earnings expectations, stronger storage pricing, and AI-driven cloud demand. Recent coverage characterized the company as a momentum candidate, while its latest results exceeded analyst estimates and management provided a strong fiscal 2027 outlook. Why Western Digital Is a Great Momentum Choice
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentators remain constructive on the broader memory and storage cycle, citing supply constraints, rising demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure, and potential for continued earnings growth. Jim Cramer on Memory and Storage Stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: The stock’s recent rally was supported by bullish commentary about a potential memory bottleneck and by optimism surrounding the company’s margins and forecast-beating outlook. Those gains have left WDC and its peers more sensitive to profit-taking and changes in investor sentiment. Western Digital Stock Jumps as Memory Rally Accelerates
• Negative Sentiment: Rising Treasury yields are pressuring richly valued AI and semiconductor-related shares, encouraging investors to rotate away from the extended memory trade. Western Digital is declining alongside Micron and SanDisk despite the absence of a company-specific negative announcement. Higher Rates Test the Memory Boom
• Negative Sentiment: A Wall Street Journal report concerning previously undisclosed AI spending commitments appears to have intensified concerns about AI-related valuations and corporate spending, weighing on the entire memory and storage group. WSJ Report Sends Memory Stocks Down

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.56.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 25,093 shares of company stock worth $11,650,737 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.