Vise Technologies Inc. Takes Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 13,997 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,940,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth approximately $3,104,000. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $19,198,000. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth $703,000. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth $546,000. Finally, Trivest Advisors Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth $627,606,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This trade represents a 3.36% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through 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 business’s 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,679 shares of company stock worth $11,451,605. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Summit Insights cut shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $676.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $900.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $469.05 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $554.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $433.12. The company has a market capitalization of $161.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 2.14. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $74.42 and a 1 year high of $799.87.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.66 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s 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.