KCM Investment Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

KCM Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its stake in 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 worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its stake in 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 worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth approximately $221,800,000. Finally, National Pension Service raised its stake in 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 worth $291,422,000 after purchasing an additional 1,231,477 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley reiterated an Overweight rating and lifted its price target to $650, while other firms also turned constructive on Western Digital and the broader hard-drive/storage group. What’s Going On With The Jump In Western Digital Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Investors are re-rating WDC on expectations that AI and cloud data-center buildouts will keep HDD and storage demand tight, supporting pricing power and margin expansion. Why Western Digital’s stock was the S&P 500’s biggest gainer on Monday
• Positive Sentiment: Recent earnings were stronger than expected, with revenue and EPS beating estimates and management guiding to continued profitability, reinforcing confidence in the turnaround story. Western Digital Corporation Will Hit $600 on This Date
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market sentiment was also upbeat, with risk appetite improving across AI, chip, and memory stocks, adding a sector tailwind to the move in WDC.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on WDC. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $450.46.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Up 16.1%

Western Digital stock opened at $653.53 on Tuesday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $56.26 and a 52-week high of $658.80. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $454.40 and a 200-day moving average of $312.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $225.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.02 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 3.58%.

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.