West Family Investments Inc. Buys Shares of 1,986 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

West Family Investments Inc. bought a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 1,986 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,268,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 28.6% in the second quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 90 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 2,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,470,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $921,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 45.5% during the 2nd quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 2.1% in the second quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 1,390 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $888,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $462.09 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $555.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $431.58. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $73.14 and a 1 year high of $799.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.27 billion, a PE ratio of 19.09 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.48%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WDC. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Barclays lifted their target price on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Susquehanna upped their price target on Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Western Digital from $560.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on Western Digital from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $534.56.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is benefiting from a shortage of storage products and continued AI-related demand, supporting an optimistic long-term growth outlook. Is Western Digital Stock an Undervalued AI Stock to Buy?
• Positive Sentiment: Momentum-focused analysis continues to identify WDC as an attractive pick, reflecting strong recent performance and favorable investor sentiment toward AI-driven storage demand. Why Western Digital Is a Great Momentum Choice
• Neutral Sentiment: Jim Cramer said it may not be too late to invest in memory and storage stocks, but he also highlighted the sector’s historical boom-and-bust cycles, underscoring the risk of sharp swings in demand and pricing. Jim Cramer Discusses WDC and Other Memory Stocks
• Negative Sentiment: A broader technology selloff pressured WDC and other memory stocks as investors reduced exposure to AI hardware following a Wall Street Journal report about undisclosed AI-related spending commitments. WSJ Report Sends Memory Stocks Lower
• Negative Sentiment: Rising Treasury yields are weighing on high-growth semiconductor and storage shares by increasing discount rates and making richly valued AI trades less attractive, even without a deterioration in memory fundamentals. Higher Rates Test the Memory Boom
• Negative Sentiment: One recent analysis argues that WDC could be substantially overvalued after its strong rally, while uncertainty over whether Apple can source high-bandwidth memory from Chinese suppliers is creating additional volatility around potential demand shifts. Western Digital Could Be Overvalued on Apple China Memory Push

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at $60,663,290.57. The trade was a 0.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 24,987 shares of company stock worth $11,602,097. 0.18% of the stock is currently 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.