EP Wealth Advisors LLC Takes $10.20 Million Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• EP Wealth Advisors acquired a new $10.2 million stake in Western Digital during the second quarter, while institutional investors collectively own 92.51% of the company.
• Western Digital reported quarterly earnings of $3.56 per share, beating estimates by $0.25, while revenue rose 43.8% year over year to $3.75 billion.
• The stock opened at $459.44, below the analyst consensus price target of $534.56; analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus, and the company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share.

EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 15,962 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $10,195,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $5,242,000. Ieq Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter worth about $125,102,000. Callan Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter worth about $11,904,000. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth about $1,317,000. Finally, Causey Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth about $452,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of WDC opened at $459.44 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $158.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $74.57 and a 52 week high of $799.87. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $552.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $433.31.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital's payout ratio is 2.48%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the topic of several research reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $560.00 to $525.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $534.56.

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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