3,016 Shares in Western Digital Corporation $WDC Bought by Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.

Key Points

• Asahi Life Asset Management opened a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter, buying 3,016 shares valued at about $520,000.
• Western Digital continues to attract strong institutional interest, with large investors like Vanguard, Northern Trust, and Dimensional Fund Advisors increasing stakes; 92.51% of the stock is now held by institutions.
• Analysts are increasingly bullish after Western Digital’s earnings beat and raised guidance, with multiple firms boosting price targets and the stock benefiting from optimism around AI-driven storage demand.

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. bought a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 3,016 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $520,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $5,196,484,000 after purchasing an additional 243,177 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth $791,317,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $456,737,000 after purchasing an additional 402,981 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital News Summary

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

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 363 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.09, for a total value of $136,883.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 120,023 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,259,473.07. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 53,679 shares of company stock valued at $18,049,314 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Barclays raised their price objective on Western Digital from $405.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Argus set a $300.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $395.83.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $480.09 on Monday. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $43.88 and a 1 year high of $483.87. The firm has a market cap of $165.48 billion, a PE ratio of 28.66 and a beta of 2.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $325.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $242.16.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. The business's 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. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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 represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital's payout ratio is 2.99%.

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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