Waddell & Associates LLC Purchases 1,768 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Waddell & Associates LLC boosted its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 91.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,695 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,768 shares during the period. Waddell & Associates LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $637,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Avion Wealth raised its holdings in Western Digital by 163.8% in the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners bought a new position in Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. BOKF NA raised its holdings in Western Digital by 6,700.0% in the third quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. JPL Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Fideuram Asset Management Ireland dac acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible 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 that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value 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 represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $517.72 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $431.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $300.90. The firm has a market cap of $178.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.91 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $54.60 and a 52 week high of $602.54.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 3.58%.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Citi reportedly remains bullish on Western Digital, reinforcing that analysts still see upside in the stock despite the pullback.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary continues to highlight strong momentum in memory and AI-related storage demand, which has helped support Western Digital’s sharp run over the past several months. Memory Stocks Sandisk (SNDK), Seagate (STX), and Western Digital (WDC) Surge on AI-Driven Demand Forecast
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital is attracting elevated investor attention and social-media chatter, suggesting the stock remains a high-conviction name in the semiconductor space.
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data showed no meaningful change, so there is no clear evidence that bearish positioning is driving today’s move.
• Negative Sentiment: Memory and storage shares were broadly weaker intraday, with Western Digital falling alongside Micron as the sector gave back gains. Micron Sinks 6%, Western Digital Falls 5% but SanDisk Holds Steady
• Negative Sentiment: A reported macro shock in the Middle East weakened the stable backdrop that had been supporting the semiconductor rally, adding pressure across chip stocks. Skyworks Solutions, Western Digital, and Teradyne Shares Are Falling, What You Need To Know

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $433.29.

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.