NFJ Investment Group LLC Invests $5.87 Million in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

NFJ Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,193 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,872,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter worth approximately $885,565,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the first quarter worth approximately $350,403,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price target on shares of Western Digital and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Mizuho set a $590.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $469.05 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $554.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $433.12. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $74.42 and a fifty-two week high of $799.87. The stock has a market cap of $161.67 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 2.14.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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