Ieq Capital LLC Boosts Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Ieq Capital LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 27.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 244,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 52,311 shares during the quarter. Ieq Capital LLC owned 0.07% of Western Digital worth $42,168,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WDC. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its stake in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised 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 acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $221,800,000. Finally, National Pension Service raised its stake in Western Digital by 267.6% during the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $291,422,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231,477 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $488.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $443.71.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,640,420.80. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total transaction of $2,071,470.06. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,905,270.79. The trade was a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 over the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Stock Up 6.4%

NASDAQ WDC opened at $562.92 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $447.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $307.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.61 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on Western Digital from $530 to $650 and reiterated an overweight rating, signaling more upside potential for the shares. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company announced a Sandisk share exchange with institutional investors, a move that has been interpreted as supportive of the stock and part of a broader capital strategy. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital highlighted AI-focused storage innovation at Computex, reinforcing the market’s view that it is well positioned to benefit from data-center and AI infrastructure spending. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts also pointed to strong free cash flow, a larger dividend, and a new $4 billion buyback plan, which supports the investment case by showing confidence in cash generation and shareholder returns. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital has been outperforming the broader market over the past year, and brokerages still generally rate the stock a moderate buy, which supports sentiment but is more of a confirmation than a new catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One recent market note said WDC slipped with the broader market after a hotter-than-expected CPI report revived rate-hike concerns, showing that macro pressure can still weigh on the stock at times. Article Title

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.