Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab Buys New Shares in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Danica Pension Livsforsikringsaktieselskab bought a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 8,891 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,679,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the period. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on WDC shares. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price target on Western Digital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Fox Advisors lowered Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings downgraded Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $676.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $534.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. This trade represents a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 25,093 shares of company stock valued at $11,650,737. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Western Digital Trading Down 7.4%

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $496.16 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $171.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.49 and a beta of 2.14. The business’s 50 day moving average is $556.08 and its 200-day moving average is $430.29. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $73.14 and a 1-year high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The business had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.66 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. Analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $0.15 dividend. 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 Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 2.48%.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital continues to benefit from improving earnings expectations, stronger storage pricing, and AI-driven cloud demand. Recent coverage characterized the company as a momentum candidate, while its latest results exceeded analyst estimates and management provided a strong fiscal 2027 outlook. Why Western Digital Is a Great Momentum Choice
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentators remain constructive on the broader memory and storage cycle, citing supply constraints, rising demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure, and potential for continued earnings growth. Jim Cramer on Memory and Storage Stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: The stock’s recent rally was supported by bullish commentary about a potential memory bottleneck and by optimism surrounding the company’s margins and forecast-beating outlook. Those gains have left WDC and its peers more sensitive to profit-taking and changes in investor sentiment. Western Digital Stock Jumps as Memory Rally Accelerates
• Negative Sentiment: Rising Treasury yields are pressuring richly valued AI and semiconductor-related shares, encouraging investors to rotate away from the extended memory trade. Western Digital is declining alongside Micron and SanDisk despite the absence of a company-specific negative announcement. Higher Rates Test the Memory Boom
• Negative Sentiment: A Wall Street Journal report concerning previously undisclosed AI spending commitments appears to have intensified concerns about AI-related valuations and corporate spending, weighing on the entire memory and storage group. WSJ Report Sends Memory Stocks Down

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.