PARUS FINANCE UK Ltd Invests $493,000 in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

PARUS FINANCE UK Ltd purchased a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,861 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $493,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its position in Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Avion Wealth raised its position in Western Digital by 163.8% during the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 207.0% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. BOKF NA raised its position in Western Digital by 6,700.0% during the third quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPL Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is benefiting from broad strength across memory and storage stocks, with investors betting that AI infrastructure demand will keep pricing and demand elevated for HDDs and SSDs. Not Just Micron: Memory Melt-Up Pulls SanDisk Up 8%, Western Digital Up 10%
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage points to continued gross margin improvement, with Q3 gross margin jumping to 50.5% and Q4 guidance calling for 51%-52%, helped by higher-capacity drives, better pricing, and cost controls. Can Western Digital Deliver Continued Gross Margin Improvement?
• Positive Sentiment: The company appointed former Nvidia executive Manuvir Das to its board, reinforcing the view that Western Digital is positioning itself more directly around AI and data-center growth opportunities. WD Appoints Manuvir Das to Board of Directors
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary also highlighted Western Digital as underappreciated relative to peers, with hard disk drives still seen as critical to AI storage infrastructure. Western Digital Is Making the Right Moves Amid Fierce Momentum for Memory Stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: One analyst piece argued Western Digital stacks up poorly versus peers like Micron, which could temper enthusiasm even as the broader sector remains strong. Western Digital Stacks Up Poorly To Peers Like Micron, Don’t Buy Here
• Neutral Sentiment: An insider sale by Cynthia Tregillis was disclosed, but it was small and made under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan, so it does not appear to be a major warning sign. SEC filing

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $335.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.50.

Western Digital Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of WDC stock opened at $531.21 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $51.17 and a 12 month high of $553.50. The business’s 50 day moving average is $396.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $281.03. The company has a market cap of $183.10 billion, a PE ratio of 31.71 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 2.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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 10,148 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the transaction, the insider owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. This trade represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 54,405 shares of company stock worth $18,575,428. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.