SGL Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases Shares of 1,590 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

SGL Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $697,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its position in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in 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 acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $221,800,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter worth about $885,565,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the first quarter valued at about $350,403,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $469.05 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $74.42 and a 12-month high of $799.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.67 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 2.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $554.31 and its 200-day moving average is $433.12.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.66 earnings per share. The firm’s 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. Analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.48%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Fox Advisors lowered shares of Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, August 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at $60,663,290.57. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their position. The transaction 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 Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,366,060.96. This trade represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605 over the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.