OneAscent Financial Services LLC Buys Shares of 2,503 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

OneAscent Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 2,503 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,599,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WDC. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 11.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after acquiring an additional 384,103 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its position in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in 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. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 70.4% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $512,107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,228,661 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,809,409 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $483,977,000 after purchasing an additional 159,167 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on WDC. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Western Digital from $560.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Up 1.5%

WDC opened at $469.05 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $554.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $433.12. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $74.42 and a 52 week high of $799.87. The company has a market capitalization of $161.67 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.66 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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 issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total value of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 114,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,663,290.57. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital 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.