Leonteq Securities AG Purchases New Shares in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Leonteq Securities AG initiated a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter, buying 10,076 shares valued at about $1.74 million.
• Western Digital continues to draw institutional and analyst attention, with several funds increasing stakes and analysts raising price targets; the consensus rating is Moderate Buy with an average target of $395.83.
• The company reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates, and it also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share from $0.13.

Leonteq Securities AG acquired a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 10,076 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,736,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 551.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Avion Wealth raised its holdings in Western Digital by 163.8% in the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 207.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: WDC is bouncing with the broader memory/storage complex, as SanDisk and Micron also moved higher and investors viewed the recent selloff as overdone. SanDisk Soars 9%, Western Digital Rallies 5%, Micron Rises 3% as Memory Trade Reawakens
• Positive Sentiment: Investors are still responding to the company’s upbeat guidance and strong AI data-center storage narrative, which suggests demand and pricing trends remain favorable. Western Digital jumps 4.6% as AI-storage pricing narrative stays hot after upbeat guidance and capital-structure moves
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent coverage also framed WDC as part of a valuation/momentum discussion after a strong run, which may be contributing to trading interest but does not clearly change the fundamental outlook. Western Digital (WDC) Valuation Check After Strong 1-Year Return And Recent Share Price Cooldown
• Negative Sentiment: The stock was pressured earlier as a former Samsung executive warned that expanding memory-chip production in China could eventually weigh on pricing, raising concerns about a potential supply-driven downturn. Seagate and Western Digital Stocks Trade Down, What You Need To Know

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 121,682 shares of the company's stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 53,679 shares of company stock valued at $18,049,314 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $395.83.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $486.46 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $49.00 and a 52 week high of $525.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $167.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.04 and a beta of 2.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $368.71 and a 200-day moving average of $266.89.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last issued 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. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.36 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter 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. On average, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current 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 issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This is a boost from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital's payout ratio is currently 2.99%.

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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