Ieq Capital LLC Raises Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Ieq Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 27.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 244,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 52,311 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $42,168,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WDC. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at $221,800,000. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 267.6% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $291,422,000 after purchasing an additional 1,231,477 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price objective on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $443.71.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock opened at $562.92 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $447.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $307.91. The company has a market capitalization of $194.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.61 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $54.60 and a 1-year high of $602.54.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Western Digital News Summary

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

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through 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 the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 90,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,905,270.79. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.