Osmosis Investment Management UK Ltd Makes New $4.54 Million Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Osmosis Investment Management UK Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 7,100 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,535,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $221,800,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at about $885,565,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter valued at about $350,403,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the subject of several research reports. TD Cowen raised their target price on Western Digital from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock opened at $459.44 on Monday. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $74.57 and a twelve month high of $799.87. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $552.24 and its 200-day moving average is $434.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.36 billion, a PE ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.Western Digital’s revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.48%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed 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 company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,679 shares of company stock worth $11,451,605. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.