Benjamin Edwards Inc. Takes $480,000 Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new stake in Western Digital during the fourth quarter, acquiring 2,784 shares valued at about $480,000.
• Western Digital reported strong quarterly results, beating earnings and revenue estimates with EPS of $2.72 on $3.34 billion in revenue, and it also raised its quarterly dividend from $0.13 to $0.15 per share.
• Investor sentiment remains positive, with multiple analysts raising price targets and coverage pointing to Western Digital benefiting from AI-driven data-center storage demand.

Benjamin Edwards Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,784 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $480,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $791,317,000. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its position in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new stake in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at about $221,800,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 784,645 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $480.09 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $165.48 billion, a PE ratio of 28.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 2.10. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $325.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $242.16. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $43.88 and a fifty-two week high of $483.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.36 earnings per share. The company's quarterly 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, sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share 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 paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. 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%. Western Digital's payout ratio is presently 2.99%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

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 transaction of $136,883.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 120,023 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,259,473.07. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available 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 sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 53,679 shares of company stock worth $18,049,314. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $500.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Bank of America raised their price objective on Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Susquehanna restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $488.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. 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. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $395.83.

Western Digital News Roundup

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 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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