11,834 Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Purchased by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 14.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 94,958 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,834 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $43,062,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AIA Group Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth $3,146,000. Provenance Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $662,000. Integrity Alliance LLC. grew its position in Western Digital by 261.9% in the 3rd quarter. Integrity Alliance LLC. now owns 3,098 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,408,000 after buying an additional 2,242 shares during the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its position in Western Digital by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 44,335 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $20,148,000 after buying an additional 1,978 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $13,652,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Memory stocks recovered some of Monday’s losses after a cautious outlook from Kioxia weighed on the group; Western Digital joined the rebound, providing a near-term tailwind for WDC. SanDisk Surges as Memory Stocks Rebound
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital raised its quarterly dividend nearly 17% to $0.175 per share. The increase follows a strong fiscal first quarter, with revenue up 55% and adjusted earnings up 161% year over year. Western Digital Raises Its Dividend
• Neutral Sentiment: Cloud customers generated 88% of revenue, with cloud sales growing 54%. That reflects strong storage demand, but also leaves WDC particularly exposed to spending by a concentrated customer segment. Western Digital’s Cloud Revenue Share
• Negative Sentiment: A report on Jim Cramer’s comparison favored Micron over Western Digital, which may underscore competition for investor attention as AI-related memory demand attracts interest. Micron vs. Western Digital
• Negative Sentiment: A Western Digital director sold 18.7% of their stake under a preset plan. The planned nature of the sale may temper its significance, but insider selling can still draw investor notice. Western Digital Director Sells Shares

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Argus cut their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $600.00 to $500.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $590.00 to $770.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $720.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $591.04.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $347.35 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $417.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $418.03. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $132.43 and a 1-year high of $799.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.02 billion, a PE ratio of 13.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 2.27.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.11 by $0.53. Western Digital had a return on equity of 55.62% and a net margin of 69.20%. The company had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.78 earnings per share. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 55.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 23.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 4th will be issued a $0.1750 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 4th. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 2.33%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total transaction of $825,466.65. Following the sale, the insider owned 80,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,052,185.77. The trade was a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total transaction of $481,708.52. Following the transaction, the insider owned 112,155 shares in the company, valued at $53,650,465.80. The trade was a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 25,436 shares of company stock worth $11,340,064 in the last 90 days. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.