Great Lakes Advisors LLC Takes Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,365 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,511,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth about $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $221,800,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $885,565,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $350,403,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WDC. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Bank of America increased their price target on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Summit Insights cut Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $459.44 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $74.57 and a 52 week high of $799.87. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $552.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $433.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were 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 directly owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. This trade represents a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 24,679 shares of company stock worth $11,451,605 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.