Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Acquires New Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management acquired 42,118 Western Digital shares worth approximately $26.9 million in the second quarter. Institutional investors collectively own 92.51% of WDC.
• Western Digital reported quarterly EPS of $3.56, beating estimates of $3.31, while revenue rose 43.8% year over year to $3.75 billion. Analysts maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with an average price target of $534.56.
• WDC shares opened at $459.44, down 2.0%, and have traded between $74.57 and $799.87 over the past year. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share, representing a 0.1% yield.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 42,118 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $26,901,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth about $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Western Digital by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in 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 valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 70.4% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $512,107,000 after buying an additional 1,228,661 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,809,409 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $483,977,000 after buying an additional 159,167 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on WDC shares. Summit Insights lowered shares of Western Digital from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen lowered Western Digital from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Sunday, August 16th. Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen upped their price target on Western Digital from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price objective on Western Digital and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of WDC opened at $459.44 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $552.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $433.31. The firm has a market cap of $158.36 billion, a PE ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $74.57 and a 1-year high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.66 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is currently 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total transaction of $427,941.04. Following the transaction, the insider owned 114,539 shares of the company's stock, valued at $60,663,290.57. The trade was a 0.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 24,679 shares of company stock worth $11,451,605. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

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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