Plato Investment Management Ltd Invests $2.08 Million in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Plato Investment Management disclosed a new fourth-quarter position in Western Digital, buying 12,038 shares valued at about $2.08 million.
• Western Digital continues to draw strong institutional and analyst interest, with hedge funds owning 92.51% of the stock and multiple firms raising price targets to as high as $500.
• The company posted a solid earnings beat, raised its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share, and remains positioned to benefit from strong AI and data-center storage demand.

Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 12,038 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,084,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WDC. ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. Westfuller Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Avion Wealth grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 163.8% during the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $480.09 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $325.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $242.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $165.48 billion, a PE ratio of 28.66 and a beta of 2.10. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $43.88 and a 1 year high of $483.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total transaction of $2,071,470.06. Following the sale, the insider owned 90,041 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm'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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. This trade represents 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 53,679 shares of company stock valued at $18,049,314. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on WDC shares. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Western Digital from $335.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. TD Cowen raised their target price on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley restated an "overweight" rating and set a $488.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Susquehanna restated a "neutral" rating and set a $285.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $395.83.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street analysts remain upbeat on Western Digital, with firms lifting price targets and Zacks upgrading the stock to Strong Buy, signaling rising confidence in demand trends and earnings momentum. Zacks Research upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage is highlighting Western Digital as a beneficiary of the AI memory and data-center storage supercycle, with demand for high-capacity storage solutions expected to stay elevated. Motley Fool article
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s recent earnings beat, raised guidance, and multiple target increases from analysts continue to support the stock’s sharp year-to-date gain and keep momentum investors engaged. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital also announced progress on simplifying its structure by unwinding its remaining Sandisk stake through share swaps and future distributions, which may help investors better value WDC as a more focused storage pure play. Yahoo Finance share swap article

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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