James Investment Research Inc. Acquires Shares of 6,476 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• James Investment Research opened a new position in Western Digital, buying 6,476 shares valued at about $1.75 million in the first quarter.
• Western Digital reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $2.72 beating estimates and revenue of $3.34 billion topping forecasts, while also raising its quarterly dividend from $0.12 to $0.15.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive: Bank of America raised its price target to $732 and Melius Research upgraded the stock to strong-buy, even though the shares fell 6.3% amid a broader memory-sector pullback.

James Investment Research Inc. bought a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,476 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,752,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WDC. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Western Digital by 9.2% in the 1st quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $97,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Western Digital by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 4,707 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $811,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $346,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,982 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $341,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the period. Finally, Falcon Wealth Planning raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 2.6% during the first quarter. Falcon Wealth Planning now owns 2,170 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $587,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital Trading Down 6.3%

Shares of WDC opened at $598.37 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $206.25 billion, a PE ratio of 35.72 and a beta of 2.10. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $63.01 and a 12 month high of $799.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $533.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $355.37.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.36 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This is a boost from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 3.58%.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its price target on Western Digital to $732 from $610 and kept a buy rating, implying meaningful upside from current levels. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Melius Research upgraded Western Digital to strong-buy, reinforcing the bullish analyst view on the stock. Zacks.com
• Positive Sentiment: An analyst fair value estimate was reset higher to $584.79 from $518.26 as models were updated for AI storage demand, HDD pricing, and Western Digital’s product roadmap. Yahoo Finance
• Neutral Sentiment: The stock’s move is also part of a broader memory-sector pullback, with Micron and SanDisk also declining as the Nasdaq weakens. 247WallSt

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings lowered Western Digital from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $493.52.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares of the company's stock, valued at $63,640,420.80. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently 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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