Quantbot Technologies LP Makes New Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 8,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,388,000.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $560.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Mizuho set a $590.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $534.56.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were 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 $60,663,290.57. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $459.44 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $158.36 billion, a price-to-earnings 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. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $552.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $433.31.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.66 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue 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. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.48%.

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.