Geode Capital Management LLC Sells 132,086 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Geode Capital Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,282,432 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 132,086 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,593,883,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $6,281,000 after buying an additional 5,731 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $641,000. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $34,244,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 399.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,900,000 after buying an additional 25,987 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 75.4% during the 4th quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,778,000 after buying an additional 4,068 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $531.18 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $51.17 and a 1-year high of $553.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $391.76 and its 200 day moving average is $279.27. The company has a market cap of $183.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.71 and a beta of 2.10.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Argus set a $300.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Western Digital from $335.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.50.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is being viewed as a key beneficiary of surging AI infrastructure spending, with multiple reports citing stronger data-center storage demand and improving pricing conditions for memory and hard drives. Western Digital Stock Investors Need to See This
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage around the “memory melt-up” continues to support the stock, as peers like Micron and SanDisk rally on the same supply-tight, AI-demand narrative that is also benefiting WDC. Not Just Micron: Memory Melt-Up Pulls SanDisk Up 8%, Western Digital Up 10%
• Positive Sentiment: Evercore raised its price target on Western Digital to $575 and called the stock “underappreciated,” pointing to HDD demand tied to AI data-center buildouts. Hard Disk Drives Are Critical for AI but Western Digital Stock Is Still Underappreciated Here
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital appointed former NVIDIA executive Manuvir Das to its board, reinforcing the company’s AI infrastructure credentials and signaling deeper alignment with the AI build-out theme. WD Appoints Manuvir Das to Board of Directors
• Neutral Sentiment: An insider sale by Cynthia L. Tregillis was disclosed, but it was small and executed under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan, so it does not appear to be a strong bearish signal. SEC filing
• Neutral Sentiment: Some articles note the stock has become very extended after a sharp multi-month run, which could lead to volatility even though the fundamental backdrop remains supportive. Sandisk Stock’s 4,000% Rise Is Happening Too Fast to Keep Up With

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 53,655 shares of company stock valued at $18,179,038. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.