Strs Ohio Sells 16,985 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Strs Ohio decreased its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 173,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 16,985 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $20,804,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. JNBA Financial Advisors purchased a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $34,000. Bogart Wealth LLC grew its position in Western Digital by 57.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 309 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC grew its position in Western Digital by 131.9% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 385 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital Stock Down 2.8%

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $236.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $80.82 billion, a PE ratio of 34.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.78. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $247.94. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $182.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $130.31.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $2.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.72 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 30.89% and a net margin of 21.37%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.78 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-2.030 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 4th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.28%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on WDC shares. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on Western Digital from $165.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Western Digital to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Mizuho set a $240.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $206.29.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at $596,524.46. This represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total value of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 26,816 shares of company stock valued at $4,116,148 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analyst upgrades and sizable price?target increases (Citigroup, Rosenblatt, Bank of America and others) have lifted sentiment and supported the rally into record highs. Forget the Chips, Buy Memory
• Positive Sentiment: AI-driven demand is rotating investor money from GPUs to storage — institutional flow into NAND/SSD and HDD suppliers is increasing pricing power and revenue visibility for WDC’s data?center HDDs and SSD roadmap. AI-money moving to storage
• Positive Sentiment: WDC has strong recent earnings?surprise history and Wall Street expects continued earnings growth; that raises the chance of another beat at the upcoming quarterly report. Will WDC beat estimates?
• Neutral Sentiment: Corporate cadence: WDC is hosting an Innovation Day and has raised its dividend — both can reinforce the narrative but are event?driven and dependent on execution/communication. Innovation Day / dividend context
• Neutral Sentiment: Insider activity: a small officer sale (447 shares) was disclosed; size and frequency indicate routine liquidity rather than management signaling. SEC filing
• Negative Sentiment: Price pullback today amid broader market strength — traders appear to be taking profits after WDC hit fresh 52?week/all?time highs. WDC stock dips while market gains
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and cycle risk concerns: several commentators warn the rally could be stretched and exposed to a pullback if supply/pricing dynamics normalize or AI demand growth slows. Pullback risk analysis

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.