ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd Acquires New Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd bought a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 5,487 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $945,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $34,244,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 399.8% in the third quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,900,000 after buying an additional 25,987 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 75.4% in the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,778,000 after buying an additional 4,068 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,270,000. Finally, WESPAC Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $793,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital and related memory stocks rebounded as investors rotated back into the group following SK Hynix’s capacity plan, which helped sentiment across the storage space. SanDisk Jumps 14%, Western Digital Climbs 6% as Memory Stocks Rebound on SK Hynix’s Capacity Plan
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain constructive on WDC, with recent price target increases from Mizuho and Citi reinforcing expectations for continued AI-driven storage demand and stronger earnings estimates. Mizuho and Citi Raise Western Digital (WDC) Price Targets
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s stock has also benefited from ongoing investor optimism around AI storage demand, pricing gains, and its more focused HDD-centric business mix. Western Digital Stock Skyrockets 185% YTD: Is More Growth on the Horizon?
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital announced a privately negotiated share exchange involving SanDisk investors, which may affect the company’s capital structure but is not clearly a direct earnings driver yet. Western Digital Announces Sandisk Share Exchange With Investors
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent broker commentary has kept WDC at a “Moderate Buy,” supporting the stock but largely confirming already positive sentiment rather than adding a new catalyst. Western Digital Corporation Receives Consensus Rating of Moderate Buy from Brokerages

Western Digital Stock Up 8.0%

Shares of WDC opened at $529.29 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $182.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.60 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $54.60 and a 12 month high of $602.54. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $441.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $306.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on WDC shares. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $433.29.

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.