James Investment Research Inc. Buys New Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

James Investment Research Inc. purchased a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 6,476 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,752,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at $221,800,000. Finally, National Pension Service boosted 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 last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on WDC. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective 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. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $493.52.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its price target on Western Digital to $732 from $610 and kept a buy rating, implying meaningful upside from current levels. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Melius Research upgraded Western Digital to strong-buy, reinforcing the bullish analyst view on the stock. Zacks.com
• Positive Sentiment: An analyst fair value estimate was reset higher to $584.79 from $518.26 as models were updated for AI storage demand, HDD pricing, and Western Digital’s product roadmap. Yahoo Finance
• Neutral Sentiment: The stock’s move is also part of a broader memory-sector pullback, with Micron and SanDisk also declining as the Nasdaq weakens. 247WallSt

Western Digital Trading Down 6.3%

NASDAQ WDC opened at $598.37 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $206.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.72 and a beta of 2.10. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $533.61 and a 200 day moving average of $355.37. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $63.01 and a twelve month high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The company 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%.Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period 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 analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 3.58%.

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.