Friedenthal Financial Purchases New Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Friedenthal Financial disclosed a new first-quarter stake in Western Digital, buying 3,998 shares valued at about $1.08 million.
• Western Digital continues to attract institutional interest, with hedge funds and other investors heavily owning the stock; institutions hold 92.51% of shares outstanding.
• Analysts remain upbeat on the company, with multiple firms raising price targets and the consensus rating staying at Moderate Buy; recent earnings also beat expectations and revenue rose 45.5% year over year.

Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 3,998 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,081,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Avion Wealth increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 163.8% during the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. BOKF NA raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6,700.0% in the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPL Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total value of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s earnings beat and guidance are lifting memory stocks, including Western Digital, on renewed optimism for the storage cycle.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts continue to view Western Digital favorably, with recent price targets clustering well above the broader market’s expectations.
• Positive Sentiment: Longer-term articles highlighted stronger customer buying patterns and contract shifts that could support a higher valuation for WDC. The Quiet Contract Shift Before Western Digital Stock's Loud Re-Rating

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Mizuho increased their price objective on Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Bank of America raised their target price on Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $450.46.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $641.73 on Thursday. The company's 50-day moving average is $507.39 and its 200 day moving average is $339.36. The company has a market capitalization of $221.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.31 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $62.13 and a fifty-two week high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current 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 paid 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 was Friday, June 5th. This is an increase from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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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