Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Increases Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 46.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,321 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,683 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $917,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 124.5% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 551.4% during the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Westfuller Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Avion Wealth raised its holdings in Western Digital by 163.8% during the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: WDC beat expectations: Q3 EPS $2.72 and revenue $3.34B, both above consensus, and management raised FY‑Q4 guidance (EPS and revenue) — this underpins the bullish case for continued AI/cloud storage demand. Earnings & press materials
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analyst upgrades/target raises followed the quarter — Citi hiked its target to $500 (Buy) citing stronger visibility into AI-driven HDD demand, lifting investor optimism. Citi raises target to $500
• Positive Sentiment: Other firms (Rosenblatt, TD Cowen and others) boosted targets or reiterated Buy as AI/data‑center demand drives margin expansion and share‑buyback capacity; the company also announced a quarterly dividend increase, signalling confidence in cash flow.
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry signal — peers (SanDisk/Seagate) also reported strong results and demand commentary, confirming sector‑wide AI storage tailwinds but raising questions about how much of that is already priced in. Reuters: sector demand
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction was mixed — the stock slipped after the beat as some traders engaged in “buy the rumor, sell the news” profit‑taking following an enormous YTD run; elevated expectations mean strong results may not produce further immediate upside. Yahoo: stock falls despite beat
• Negative Sentiment: Not all analyst moves are bullish: UBS raised its target to $375 but kept a Neutral rating — that level implies downside from current prices and provides a near‑term anchor for traders focused on risk management. Benzinga: UBS target

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on WDC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $405.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, February 6th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $389.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 72,711 shares of company stock valued at $19,191,604. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $432.03 on Monday. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $43.60 and a 12-month high of $446.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.49, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market cap of $146.48 billion, a PE ratio of 25.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 2.10. The company has a 50-day moving average of $314.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $234.84.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 8.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 2.99%.

About Western Digital

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.