State of Wyoming Sells 1,608 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

State of Wyoming reduced its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 39.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,475 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,608 shares during the quarter. State of Wyoming’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $669,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at about $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its position 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 buying an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new stake in Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $221,800,000. National Pension Service increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 267.6% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $291,422,000 after buying an additional 1,231,477 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 70.4% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $512,107,000 after buying an additional 1,228,661 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital has reentered merger discussions with Kioxia, reviving speculation about a combination that could create a larger NAND flash memory player and unlock value from its flash assets.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple articles highlight Western Digital as a beneficiary of strong AI-related storage demand and tight memory supply, which is boosting sentiment across the memory sector.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary says Western Digital looks reasonable on earnings and inexpensive on cash flow, suggesting the stock may still have upside even after a big multi-year rally.
• Positive Sentiment: A report comparing WDC with Super Micro said Western Digital’s AI storage focus and stronger financial footing make it an appealing AI hardware play.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage from the sector noted that memory stocks, including Western Digital, jumped after Morgan Stanley projected memory prices could rise at least 25% from Q2 to Q3, reinforcing expectations for stronger margins and profits.
• Neutral Sentiment: One article framed Western Digital as a stock with a large valuation gap versus DCF-based fair value, reflecting optimism but also implying the recent rally has already priced in some of the good news. Western Digital (WDC) Stock Looks Reasonable On Earnings While Cash Flow Looks Cheap
• Neutral Sentiment: Another piece simply referenced Western Digital in a broader list of AI stocks to buy on dips, adding to the bullish narrative but not providing a new company-specific catalyst.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total value of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 28,959 shares of company stock valued at $12,631,666 in the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on WDC. Bank of America boosted their target price on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Barclays raised their price target on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $560.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $520.32.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC opened at $558.30 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $564.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $396.20. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $66.51 and a fifty-two week high of $799.87. The company has a market cap of $192.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.33 and a beta of 2.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.36 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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 expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

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.