Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Purchases Shares of 3,025 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Pinnacle Associates Ltd. bought a new stake in Western Digital in the fourth quarter, purchasing 3,025 shares valued at about $521,000.
• Wall Street sentiment is broadly positive: analysts maintain a Moderate Buy consensus on WDC, with several firms raising price targets as high as $500.
• Western Digital reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the latest quarter, and it also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share from $0.13.

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. purchased a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,025 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $521,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Western Digital by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $5,196,484,000 after buying an additional 243,177 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth approximately $791,317,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Western Digital by 11.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $456,737,000 after buying an additional 402,981 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in 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 worth $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the subject of several research reports. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. TD Cowen raised their price target on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Mizuho set a $470.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $395.83.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were 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 directly owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. The trade was a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 53,679 shares of company stock worth $18,049,314. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC stock opened at $458.68 on Tuesday. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $356.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $260.04. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $49.00 and a 52 week high of $525.15. The company has a market capitalization of $158.10 billion, a PE ratio of 27.38 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital's 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. On average, analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.99%.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital unveiled post-quantum cryptography-enabled Ultrastar UltraSMR hard drives, highlighting its push into next-generation, AI-era infrastructure security and potentially expanding enterprise demand. WD Advances Next-Generation Trusted Infrastructure with Industry’s First Post-Quantum Cryptography Hard Drives to Help Secure the Future of AI Data
• Positive Sentiment: Reports about AI storage demand suggest Western Digital and Seagate are benefiting from tighter supply and better pricing power in mass-capacity drives, which is supportive for revenue and margins. Seagate and Western Digital: AI Storage Demand Is Now Showing Up in Pricing Power
• Positive Sentiment: Broader coverage of the AI memory/storage boom is drawing investor attention to Western Digital as one of the names positioned to benefit from infrastructure spending. Memory Chip Stocks to Watch: Micron (MU), SK Hynix, and Western Digital Lead AI Boom
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains constructive, with Western Digital receiving a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating, but this is a supportive backdrop rather than a fresh catalyst. Western Digital Corporation NASDAQ: WDC Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts
• Neutral Sentiment: Other articles on Micron and SanDisk largely reinforce the same industry theme: AI demand is improving the outlook for memory and storage suppliers, but they do not appear to be direct company-specific catalysts for Western Digital. Why Did Micron Stock Drop Today? Why Did Sandisk Stock Drop Today?

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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