LSV Asset Management Has $128.24 Million Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• LSV Asset Management cut its Western Digital stake by 50.7% in the fourth quarter, but still held 744,412 shares valued at about $128.24 million.
• Western Digital reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $2.72 beating estimates and revenue of $3.34 billion topping expectations; revenue rose 45.5% year over year.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share, while analysts remain generally bullish, with multiple price-target hikes and an average target of $395.83.

LSV Asset Management cut its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 50.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 744,412 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 766,800 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management owned 0.22% of Western Digital worth $128,240,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $791,317,000. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $221,800,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $78,347,000 after purchasing an additional 784,645 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $484.28 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $49.00 and a twelve month high of $525.15. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $373.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $268.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $166.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.91 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last issued 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. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. 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 previous year, the company earned $1.36 EPS. The business's revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 a positive change from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company's stock, valued at $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the firm's 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 directly owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 53,785 shares of company stock valued at $18,097,954 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. New Street Research set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $405.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and set a $488.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Western Digital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $340.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $395.83.

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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