2,875 Shares in Western Digital Corporation $WDC Acquired by RFG Advisory LLC

Key Points

• RFG Advisory LLC disclosed a new position in Western Digital, buying 2,875 shares in the fourth quarter valued at about $495,000.
• Western Digital continues to attract strong institutional interest, with hedge funds and asset managers making major additions; institutions now own 92.51% of the stock.
• Analyst sentiment remains bullish after the company’s earnings beat and raised guidance, with multiple firms lifting price targets and Western Digital benefiting from expectations tied to the AI and data-center storage boom.

RFG Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,875 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $495,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at $791,317,000. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at about $221,800,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Western Digital by 175.4% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $78,347,000 after acquiring an additional 784,645 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on WDC shares. Mizuho set a $470.00 price objective on Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $395.83.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street analysts remain upbeat on Western Digital, with firms lifting price targets and Zacks upgrading the stock to Strong Buy, signaling rising confidence in demand trends and earnings momentum. Zacks Research upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage is highlighting Western Digital as a beneficiary of the AI memory and data-center storage supercycle, with demand for high-capacity storage solutions expected to stay elevated. Motley Fool article
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s recent earnings beat, raised guidance, and multiple target increases from analysts continue to support the stock’s sharp year-to-date gain and keep momentum investors engaged. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital also announced progress on simplifying its structure by unwinding its remaining Sandisk stake through share swaps and future distributions, which may help investors better value WDC as a more focused storage pure play. Yahoo Finance share swap article

Western Digital Trading Up 0.0%

NASDAQ WDC opened at $480.09 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $165.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.66 and a beta of 2.10. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $325.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $242.16. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $43.88 and a 52 week high of $483.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.36 EPS. The business's revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is presently 2.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 107,794 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 53,679 shares of company stock worth $18,049,314. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.

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