Blue Capital Inc. Acquires Shares of 3,765 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Blue Capital Inc. disclosed a new fourth-quarter stake in Western Digital, buying 3,765 shares valued at about $649,000.
• Western Digital continues to attract major institutional interest, with hedge funds and pension funds making large moves into the stock; institutional investors now own 92.51% of shares outstanding.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish on WDC, with several raising price targets and the consensus rating sitting at Moderate Buy with a target of $450.46, while the company also recently increased its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share.

Blue Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,765 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $649,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WDC. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at about $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its position in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Finally, National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 267.6% in the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $291,422,000 after purchasing an additional 1,231,477 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on WDC. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $340.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $450.46.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

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 transaction of $235,699.20. Following the completion of 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $746.23 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $257.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.55 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $58.66 and a 1-year high of $799.87. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $478.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $324.21.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same period 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. Analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This is a boost from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 3.58%.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is getting momentum-stock attention from analysts and traders who see AI-driven data-center growth supporting long-term demand for high-capacity storage. Seagate & Another AI Memory Momentum Stock With Big Upside
• Positive Sentiment: Shares are also benefiting from an industry-wide surge in memory stocks after reports that Apple flagged “unavoidable” memory price hikes, reinforcing pricing power across the sector. SanDisk Jumps 11%, Western Digital Rises 7% After Apple Flags “Unavoidable” Memory Price Hikes
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage continues to frame WDC as a strong momentum name, with articles suggesting more upside could remain after its recent run. Western Digital (WDC) Stock Could Close Out the Week with Major Gains
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts have been raising price targets and highlighting WDC’s strong profitability, which is adding to bullish sentiment. Morgan Stanley Raises Price Target on Western Digital (WDC). Here is Why
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market rotation away from tech and into financials could create near-term volatility for technology stocks, including WDC. Financials Rose, Tech Fell Before Kevin Warsh Fed Debut

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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