HighTower Advisors LLC Raises Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• HighTower Advisors LLC increased its Western Digital stake by 63.4% in the fourth quarter, adding 13,700 shares to bring its total to 35,293 shares valued at about $6.08 million.
• Western Digital has attracted significant institutional interest overall, with hedge funds and other investors owning 92.51% of the company’s stock.
• The company’s shares have been boosted by AI-related demand and strong analyst sentiment, including multiple price-target hikes and a consensus Moderate Buy rating; Western Digital also recently raised its quarterly dividend from $0.13 to $0.15 per share.

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 63.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,293 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 13,700 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in Western Digital were worth $6,080,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $791,317,000. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $221,800,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $78,347,000 after purchasing an additional 784,645 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company's stock.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Shares are benefiting from a strong sector-wide “memory melt-up,” with AI infrastructure demand supporting higher pricing power and improving earnings expectations for storage makers like Western Digital. Not Just Micron: Memory Melt-Up Pulls SanDisk Up 8%, Western Digital Up 10%
• Positive Sentiment: Evercore reportedly raised its price target on Western Digital to $575, calling the stock “underappreciated” as hard disk drives remain critical for AI data-center buildouts. Hard Disk Drives Are Critical for AI but Western Digital Stock Is Still Underappreciated Here
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage highlights Western Digital as a key beneficiary of the AI memory/storage supercycle, with investors searching the name more heavily after strong momentum in peers like Micron and SanDisk. Micron’s $1 Trillion Memory Melt-Up
• Neutral Sentiment: An insider sale by Cynthia L. Tregillis was disclosed, but it was small relative to her holdings and was made under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plan, so it is unlikely to be a major negative signal for investors. SEC filing
• Neutral Sentiment: Another insider sale was also reported the same day, adding to activity that may look cautious, but the transactions appear routine rather than clearly bearish. SEC filing

Western Digital Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of WDC opened at $530.60 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $182.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.68 and a beta of 2.10. The company has a 50-day moving average of $387.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $276.68. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $51.17 and a 12-month high of $546.68.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 in the previous year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This is an increase from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.99%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Western Digital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $340.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $413.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total transaction of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the transaction, the insider owned 121,682 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 53,655 shares of company stock worth $18,179,038. Insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Company 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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