Great Lakes Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 2,365 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 2,365 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,511,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WDC. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 3,019 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 229.7% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 55.3% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 845 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total transaction of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,663,290.57. This trade represents a 0.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America increased their target price on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Mizuho set a $590.00 price objective on Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Fox Advisors cut shares of Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $459.44 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $552.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $433.31. The company has a market capitalization of $158.36 billion, a PE ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $74.57 and a 12-month high of $799.87.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital’s payout ratio 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.