ARS Investment Partners LLC Cuts Stock Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• ARS Investment Partners LLC cut its Western Digital stake by 26% in the first quarter, selling 67,328 shares and leaving it with 191,888 shares worth about $51.9 million.
• Institutional ownership remains heavy, with hedge funds and other investors holding 92.51% of Western Digital’s stock, while several other funds made modest additions to their positions.
• Western Digital continues to benefit from AI and cloud-storage demand; analysts have raised price targets and the company recently beat earnings expectations, boosted guidance, and increased its quarterly dividend.

ARS Investment Partners LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 26.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 191,888 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 67,328 shares during the quarter. Western Digital comprises about 2.7% of ARS Investment Partners LLC's holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. ARS Investment Partners LLC owned about 0.06% of Western Digital worth $51,904,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 4,707 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $811,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,982 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $341,000 after buying an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 19.4% during the 4th quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 369 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC now owns 889 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company's stock.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is benefiting from surging demand tied to AI data centers and cloud storage, which is boosting investor confidence in the company’s earnings outlook. Western Digital stock surges on AI demand; Morgan Stanley bullish on WDC
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its view on WDC, reinforcing the idea that the stock still has room to run after the recent rally. Morgan Stanley Raises Price Target on Western Digital (WDC). Here is Why
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s earnings were said to nearly double on strong AI and cloud demand, which supports the recent move up in the shares. Western Digital Earnings Nearly Double on AI, Cloud Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s comments about unavoidable memory price hikes helped lift the broader memory/storage group, including WDC, by improving the pricing backdrop for the industry. SanDisk Jumps 11%, Western Digital Rises 7% After Apple Flags “Unavoidable” Memory Price Hikes

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on WDC shares. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Barclays increased their price objective on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $450.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 ninety days, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $746.23 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $58.66 and a 52-week high of $799.87. The company has a market capitalization of $257.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.55 and a beta of 2.13. The company has a 50 day moving average of $487.12 and a 200 day moving average of $327.17.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS 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 company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. The company's quarterly 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, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This is an increase from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding WDC? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.