Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $171.03 Million Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 21.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 992,731 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 175,668 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.29% of Western Digital worth $171,025,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,982 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $341,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. Bogart Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 369 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. 44 Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 0.8% in the third quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,329 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,120,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 7.1% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $154,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Trading Up 5.2%

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $465.26 on Wednesday. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $317.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $237.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 2.10. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $43.60 and a 1-year high of $480.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 8.68 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. 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. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's payout ratio is presently 2.99%.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Q3 beat and upbeat guidance — WDC reported a Q3 EPS beat and raised its Q4 FY2026 EPS range, showing strong margin expansion and accelerating revenue tied to AI/data-center demand. Western Digital Stock Surges After Q3 Beat
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst bullishness & higher price targets — Multiple outlets and analysts have lifted targets (including big calls toward the $500+ area), reinforcing momentum and giving investors upside conviction. AI Boom Drives Western Digital Toward $500 Target
• Positive Sentiment: Dividend hike & valuation narratives — Coverage highlights a 20% dividend increase and improved valuation metrics tied to AI storage demand, attracting income and growth investors. Western Digital Valuation Check
• Positive Sentiment: Sector tailwind from SanDisk’s breakout — SanDisk (spun off from WDC) has surged, underscoring strong demand for memory/storage in AI data centers and supporting bullish sentiment across storage peers. SanDisk Spun Off From Western Digital
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor events & conference appearance — WDC presented at Barclays’ conference (transcript available), which helps transparency and investor outreach but is informational rather than catalytic. Barclays Conference Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Media coverage & screening interest — Multiple “is it a buy?” and trending-stock writeups (Zacks, Yahoo) are increasing visibility but don’t by themselves change fundamentals. Is Wall Street Bullish or Bearish on WDC?
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan (filing available); while planned sales are common and he retains a large stake, markets often view insider selling as a modest negative signal. Irving Tan SEC Filing
• Negative Sentiment: Additional insider sale — Insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares; another small reduction in insider holdings that may be noted by investors. V. Gubbi SEC Filing

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $395.83.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company's stock, valued at $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 363 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.09, for a total transaction of $136,883.67. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 120,023 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,259,473.07. The trade was a 0.30% 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. Insiders sold a total of 97,385 shares of company stock valued at $29,499,874 over the last three months. 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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