Ritholtz Wealth Management Grows Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 58.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 47,387 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,471 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $12,818,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,737,000 after buying an additional 402,981 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on WDC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Finally, Fox Advisors lowered shares of Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $450.46.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s earnings beat and guidance are lifting memory stocks, including Western Digital, on renewed optimism for the storage cycle.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts continue to view Western Digital favorably, with recent price targets clustering well above the broader market’s expectations.
• Positive Sentiment: Longer-term articles highlighted stronger customer buying patterns and contract shifts that could support a higher valuation for WDC. The Quiet Contract Shift Before Western Digital Stock’s Loud Re-Rating

Western Digital Stock Down 4.3%

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $641.73 on Thursday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $62.13 and a 52 week high of $799.87. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $507.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $339.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.19 billion, a PE ratio of 38.31 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3.58%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at $63,640,420.80. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a 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 4,674 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total transaction of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at $39,905,270.79. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.