Legal & General Group Plc Sells 65,063 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its Western Digital stake by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, selling 65,063 shares and leaving it with 2,033,555 shares valued at about $350.3 million.
• Western Digital has been drawing strong institutional interest and bullish analyst ratings, with 92.51% of shares owned by institutions and several analysts recently raising price targets to as high as $500.
• The company reported better-than-expected quarterly results, including EPS of $2.72 on revenue of $3.34 billion, and also increased its quarterly dividend from $0.13 to $0.15 per share.

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,033,555 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 65,063 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.60% of Western Digital worth $350,321,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $791,317,000. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during 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 buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during 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 buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at about $221,800,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% during 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 buying an additional 784,645 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. New Street Research set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Western Digital from $335.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $406.42.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is benefiting from a sector-wide rally in memory and storage stocks after Micron’s surge sparked bullish sentiment across the AI memory complex. Not Just Micron: Memory Melt-Up Pulls SanDisk Up 8%, Western Digital Up 10%
• Positive Sentiment: Articles highlight growing storage demand as more people use large language models and AI systems, supporting the idea that Western Digital’s products will be needed more in future data centers. Why Is Everyone Talking About Western Digital Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s recent post-quantum cryptography rollout in its Ultrastar UltraSMR drives is being framed as a strategic move for next-generation AI infrastructure and storage security. Is Western Digital (WDC) the Best Performing Data Center Stocks So Far in 2026?
• Neutral Sentiment: Some coverage simply notes that Western Digital has been one of the stronger-performing data center/storage stocks this year, reinforcing momentum rather than introducing a new fundamental catalyst. Is Western Digital (WDC) the Best Performing Data Center Stocks So Far in 2026?
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider selling, including roughly $18 million in shares, may temper some enthusiasm because it can signal limited near-term confidence from executives. Western Digital Insiders Sold US$18m Of Shares Suggesting Hesitancy

Western Digital Trading Up 8.3%

WDC stock opened at $524.65 on Wednesday. The company's 50 day moving average is $382.53 and its 200 day moving average is $274.09. The stock has a market cap of $180.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.32 and a beta of 2.10. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $50.62 and a 1-year high of $536.12.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for 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%. Western Digital's revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 90,041 shares of the company's stock, valued at $39,905,270.79. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. 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 53,347 shares of company stock valued at $17,974,293 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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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