Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Has $1.77 Million Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 217.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 14,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,086 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,769,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,196,484,000 after acquiring an additional 243,177 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $593,045,000 after purchasing an additional 186,030 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 8.5% during the second quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $354,247,000 after acquiring an additional 431,419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 17.1% in the second quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,735,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $239,022,000 after purchasing an additional 545,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized an additional $4.0 billion share repurchase and flagged an AI/data-center HDD roadmap (40TB UltraSMR in customer qualification; path to 100TB+ HAMR). That buyback plus AI positioning drove the recent rally. QuiverQuant: Buyback expansion and AI-era HDD roadmap
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks added WDC to its top growth/momentum lists and published bullish commentary — reinforcing short-term investor interest and buy-side flows into WDC as an AI/data-center beneficiary. Zacks: Momentum Stock Note
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks also added WDC to its Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) growth stocks list, a spotlight that can attract momentum-focused flows. Zacks: Best Growth Stocks to Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital plans to relaunch its G-DRIVE external storage brand — a product/marketing initiative that supports consumer positioning but is not an immediate earnings catalyst. MSN: G-DRIVE Relaunch
• Neutral Sentiment: Small insider sale disclosed (Cynthia Tregillis sold ~130 shares) — immaterial size but often highlighted by media during volatile sessions. SEC Filing: Insider Sale
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that WDC is exiting most of its remaining SanDisk stake via secondary sale / exchange have raised concerns about added share supply and a focus on balance-sheet cleanup rather than buybacks — a key near-term overhang. Yahoo Finance: SanDisk stake sale and balance-sheet actions
• Negative Sentiment: Citron Research launched a short call focused on Sandisk / the NAND cycle and highlighted WDC’s SanDisk exit as a potential warning — the report can amplify downside while investors digest valuation and cycle risk. Yahoo Finance: Citron Short on Sandisk

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 67,392 shares of company stock valued at $17,235,141 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $282.25 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $236.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $164.14. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $309.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $95.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.31, a PEG ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 5.02%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Loop Capital boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

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.