Emerald Investment Advisers LLC Purchases New Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Emerald Investment Advisers acquired 17,816 Western Digital shares worth approximately $11.4 million in the second quarter. Institutional investors collectively own 92.51% of WDC’s outstanding stock.
• Analysts maintain a generally positive outlook, with Western Digital holding a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $534.56, despite mixed recent rating changes.
• Western Digital beat quarterly expectations with $3.56 in adjusted EPS and $3.75 billion in revenue, up 43.8% year over year. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share.

Emerald Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 17,816 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $11,379,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at $29,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Ares Financial Consulting LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 45.5% during the second quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 28.6% during the second quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 90 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WDC. UBS Group decreased their target price on Western Digital from $560.00 to $525.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Summit Insights cut shares of Western Digital from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Western Digital from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $459.44 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $74.57 and a one year high of $799.87. The business has a fifty day moving average of $552.24 and a 200 day moving average of $433.31.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.Western Digital's revenue was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. Analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. 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 presently 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 approximately $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate 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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