Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft Trims Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 37.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,348 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 5,057 shares during the quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,429,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Western Digital by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,196,484,000 after buying an additional 243,177 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth approximately $791,317,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Western Digital by 11.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,737,000 after buying an additional 402,981 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Memory-chip stocks, including Western Digital, Micron, SanDisk, and Seagate, are rising in premarket trading as investors continue to bet that AI infrastructure will keep driving strong demand for storage and memory components. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: A new memory-focused ETF has surged, reinforcing the market’s belief that memory chips are a key bottleneck in AI buildout and supporting sentiment for Western Digital as an AI-storage beneficiary. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Several outlets highlighted Western Digital as a strong AI/storage name and a possible undervalued stock, which can help support investor confidence but does not add new fundamental information. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: MarketBeat flagged WDC within a broader market caution note, but the piece is more about macro risk and sector rotation than a company-specific issue. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Western Digital was called out in a “memory supercycle” pullback as traders locked in gains across the memory and storage group, suggesting recent weakness may reflect profit-taking after a huge rally rather than a new business problem. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Another report said the entire memory and storage complex sold off together, with Western Digital dropping alongside Micron and SanDisk, which points to sector-wide rotation pressure on WDC. Article Title

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $494.09 on Thursday. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $48.58 and a fifty-two week high of $525.15. The company has a market capitalization of $170.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.50 and a beta of 2.10. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $342.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $252.65.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.99%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Western Digital from $335.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Mizuho set a $470.00 target price on Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $395.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 363 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.09, for a total transaction of $136,883.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 120,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,259,473.07. This represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 53,679 shares of company stock valued at $18,049,314 in the last ninety 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.