Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Increases Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Dimensional Fund Advisors raised its stake in Western Digital by 11.8% to 3,804,907 shares (about 1.11% of the company) — adding 402,981 shares in Q3 for a position worth roughly $456.7 million, per its 13F filing.
• Western Digital beat recent quarterly estimates with $2.13 EPS vs. $1.93 and $3.02 billion in revenue (up 25.2% year-over-year), reporting strong margins (ROE ~41.5%, net margin ~35.5%) and a consensus analyst view of "Moderate Buy" (avg. target ~$265.58).
• Despite heavy institutional ownership (92.51%), there has been notable insider selling recently — including CEO Irving Tan — with insiders offloading 64,805 shares (~$16.85 million) over the past three months.

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 11.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 402,981 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned about 1.11% of Western Digital worth $456,737,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth $30,000. Westfuller Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its stake in Western Digital by 207.0% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $261.30 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $28.83 and a fifty-two week high of $309.90. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $243.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $170.07. The company has a market capitalization of $88.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 1.76.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital's payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Investor note argues WDC is being re-rated as AI workloads drive multi-year demand for high-capacity nearline HDDs; company says 2026 HDD capacity is sold out, guided for strong revenue and gross-margin expansion, and has tightened its capital/portfolio focus — this underpins the bullish thesis for durable enterprise/cloud demand. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Market write-ups tie WDC’s rebound to renewed investor focus on AI video and hyperscaler storage needs after a pullback; momentum-driven snap-back + rotation into higher-beta storage names supported the move. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage highlights how AI-generated video and other AI workloads can materially expand capacity requirements vs. traditional data, reinforcing expectations for sustained nearline HDD demand — a direct tailwind for WDC’s product mix. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: UBS raised memory-price forecasts and price targets after industry meetings, signaling broader cloud/datacenter spend strength — a supportive macro backdrop for storage suppliers (though impact differs across HDD/SSD/memory product lines). Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: WDC’s presentation at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference contained management commentary reinforcing visibility into hyperscaler plans and capacity allocation — useful for modeling but not a new catalyst by itself. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Brokerage consensus remains constructive (consensus “Moderate Buy” / many recent buy/outperform ratings), which supports sentiment but could limit near-term upside if already priced in. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Sector-wide volatility: semiconductor/memory-related sell-offs tied to Middle East tensions and smartphone weakness show macro/geopolitical risk that can pressure high-multiple tech names and trigger short-term pullbacks in storage stocks. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Significant insider selling has been reported recently, which some investors view as a governance/conviction concern even as company fundamentals improve — a potential psychological headwind for the stock. Read More.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WDC. New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Mizuho upped their price target on Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $1,833,922.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 136,538 shares of the company's stock, valued at $36,932,163.62. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 64,805 shares of company stock valued at $16,846,612. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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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