Allworth Financial LP Acquires New Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Allworth Financial initiated a Western Digital position by purchasing 9,004 shares worth approximately $5.75 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 92.51% of WDC.
• Western Digital reported quarterly EPS of $3.56, exceeding estimates of $3.31, while revenue rose 43.8% year over year to $3.75 billion. Analysts maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with an average price target of $534.56.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share, equivalent to $0.60 annually and a 0.1% yield; insiders have sold 24,679 shares worth about $11.45 million over the past 90 days.

Allworth Financial LP bought a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 9,004 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,751,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WDC. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $221,800,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $885,565,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter valued at about $350,403,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Up 1.5%

WDC opened at $469.05 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $74.42 and a twelve month high of $799.87. The company has a fifty day moving average of $554.31 and a 200-day moving average of $433.12. The stock has a market cap of $161.67 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. Western Digital's revenue for the quarter was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.48%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company's stock, valued at $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the sale, the insider owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,663,290.57. The trade was a 0.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company 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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