Aigen Investment Management LP Reduces Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Aigen Investment Management cut its Western Digital stake by 74.2% in the fourth quarter, selling 13,242 shares and leaving it with 4,600 shares worth about $792,000.
• Western Digital continues to draw strong analyst support, with multiple firms raising price targets and the current consensus standing at a Moderate Buy with a target price of $443.71.
• The company posted better-than-expected earnings and revenue, raised its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share, and unveiled a $4 billion buyback plan, signaling confidence in cash generation and shareholder returns.

Aigen Investment Management LP reduced its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 74.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,600 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 13,242 shares during the period. Aigen Investment Management LP's holdings in Western Digital were worth $792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,698,000 after buying an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 229.7% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter worth $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 55.3% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $152,000 after acquiring an additional 845 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on Western Digital from $530 to $650 and reiterated an overweight rating, signaling more upside potential for the shares. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company announced a Sandisk share exchange with institutional investors, a move that has been interpreted as supportive of the stock and part of a broader capital strategy. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital highlighted AI-focused storage innovation at Computex, reinforcing the market’s view that it is well positioned to benefit from data-center and AI infrastructure spending. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts also pointed to strong free cash flow, a larger dividend, and a new $4 billion buyback plan, which supports the investment case by showing confidence in cash generation and shareholder returns. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital has been outperforming the broader market over the past year, and brokerages still generally rate the stock a moderate buy, which supports sentiment but is more of a confirmation than a new catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One recent market note said WDC slipped with the broader market after a hotter-than-expected CPI report revived rate-hike concerns, showing that macro pressure can still weigh on the stock at times. Article Title

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were 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 owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on WDC shares. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Western Digital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $340.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Citigroup upped their price objective on Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $443.71.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $562.92 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $194.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.61 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $54.60 and a fifty-two week high of $602.54. The stock's fifty day moving average is $447.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $309.01.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital'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, sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.58%.

Western Digital 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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