Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Increases Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 3.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 60,987 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,228 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $10,506,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its position 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 valued at $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its position 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 valued at $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Finally, National Pension Service grew its holdings in Western Digital by 267.6% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $291,422,000 after purchasing an additional 1,231,477 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the company. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price objective on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $450.46.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $653.53 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $454.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $312.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $225.26 billion, a PE ratio of 39.02 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $56.26 and a 1 year high of $658.80.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total value 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. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

About Western Digital

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.