Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. Reduces Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. cut its Western Digital stake by 34.6% in the first quarter, selling 62,494 shares and leaving it with 118,245 shares worth about $32 million.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish on Western Digital, with several firms raising price targets and ratings; the consensus view is now a Moderate Buy with an average target price of $493.52.
• The company beat earnings expectations in its latest quarter, reporting $2.72 EPS on $3.34 billion in revenue, while also increasing its quarterly dividend from $0.12 to $0.15.

Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 34.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 118,245 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 62,494 shares during the quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc.'s holdings in Western Digital were worth $31,984,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 229.7% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in Western Digital by 55.3% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $152,000 after buying an additional 845 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its price target on Western Digital to $732 from $610 and kept a buy rating, implying meaningful upside from current levels. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Melius Research upgraded Western Digital to strong-buy, reinforcing the bullish analyst view on the stock. Zacks.com
• Positive Sentiment: An analyst fair value estimate was reset higher to $584.79 from $518.26 as models were updated for AI storage demand, HDD pricing, and Western Digital’s product roadmap. Yahoo Finance
• Neutral Sentiment: The stock’s move is also part of a broader memory-sector pullback, with Micron and SanDisk also declining as the Nasdaq weakens. 247WallSt

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $340.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $493.52.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% 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 quarter, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Stock Down 6.3%

WDC opened at $598.37 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $533.61 and a 200 day moving average of $355.37. The stock has a market cap of $206.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.72 and a beta of 2.10. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $63.01 and a 52-week high of $799.87.

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 for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.36 earnings per share. The business'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. Equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This is a boost 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.58%.

About Western Digital

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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