SMART Wealth LLC Acquires 1,403 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

SMART Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 20.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,197 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,403 shares during the quarter. Western Digital accounts for approximately 1.1% of SMART Wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. SMART Wealth LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $5,235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 45.5% in the 2nd quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 Cynthia Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total value of $481,708.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 112,155 shares in the company, valued at $53,650,465.80. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 23,210 shares of company stock valued at $10,440,960 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on WDC shares. Susquehanna boosted 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. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Summit Insights lowered Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $441.57 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $152.20 billion, a PE ratio of 18.24, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $85.92 and a 1-year high of $799.87. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $508.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $445.56.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

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.