Westpac Banking Corp Purchases New Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Westpac Banking Corp acquired a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 20,712 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $13,229,000. Western Digital accounts for 0.8% of Westpac Banking Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on Western Digital from $900.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $676.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $459.44 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $552.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $433.31. The firm has a market cap of $158.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $74.57 and a 12 month high of $799.87.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $256,287,591.02. This trade represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,366,060.96. This trade represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 24,679 shares of company stock worth $11,451,605 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.