NFJ Investment Group LLC Acquires Shares of 9,193 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

NFJ Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 9,193 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,872,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter worth $221,800,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at $885,565,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 1st quarter valued at $350,403,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Fox Advisors lowered Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 16th. Two investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $534.56.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value 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. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the company’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 value of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $469.05 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.67 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 2.14. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $74.42 and a 52-week high of $799.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $554.31 and a 200 day moving average of $433.12.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. 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. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

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.