Private Advisory Group LLC Acquires New Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Private Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake of 7,279 shares (~$1.25M) in Western Digital in the fourth quarter, and institutional investors/hedge funds now own about 92.51% of the stock.
• Western Digital beat Q4 estimates with $2.13 EPS vs. $1.93 expected and revenue of $3.02B (up 25.2% YoY); the stock trades near $275 with a market cap of roughly $93.4B and an average analyst price target around $265.58, with several firms raising targets to $325.
• Insiders have sold a combined 92,795 shares (~$24.3M) in the last 90 days (notable sales by Cynthia Tregillis and Matthew Massengill), leaving corporate insiders with only 0.18% ownership.

Private Advisory Group LLC acquired 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 and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 7,279 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,254,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 551.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $275.34 on Monday. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $319.62. The firm has a market cap of $93.35 billion, a PE ratio of 27.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a 50-day moving average of $272.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $194.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The business's revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is 5.02%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. China Renaissance started coverage on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, December 5th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $193.00 price target for the company. Argus set a $300.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $265.58.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Cloud growth and margin upside highlighted as a key thesis for WDC’s next leg of revenue and margin expansion. Western Digital: Cloud Key Driver To Growth And Margins
• Positive Sentiment: Technical market action: a recent trading signal coincided with a rebound in WDC shares, supporting near-term momentum. Western Digital Shares Rebound, Climb 3% After Key Trading Signal
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst comparisons favor WDC over peers like NetApp on AI-driven storage demand and cash returns, reinforcing buy-case narratives. Western Digital vs. NetApp: Which Data Storage Stock is the Better Buy?
• Positive Sentiment: WD is part of an open-source quantum error correction collaboration (OQD + QuScript), signaling R&D breadth that may support longer-term enterprise opportunities. OQD Launches Open-Source Collaboration with WD and QuScript to Advance Quantum Error Correction
• Neutral Sentiment: Retail promotions and deep discounts on WD-branded SSDs/HDDs (Amazon/Best Buy sales) could boost volume but also reflect aggressive consumer pricing. Upgrade your NAS storage with this WD 2TB SSD - now $240 off during Amazon's Spring Sale
• Negative Sentiment: Google’s new TurboQuant algorithm has raised investor concerns that AI models could require materially less memory, potentially reducing hardware demand long-term. Google Just Unveiled TurboQuant: Should You Sell Sandisk Stock Now?
• Negative Sentiment: Sector reaction and a Micron selloff reflect investor skepticism about how sustainable AI-driven memory demand will be if efficiency improvements proliferate. Micron Drop Raises A Bigger AI Question
• Negative Sentiment: Broader market and interest-rate concerns are pressuring computer and memory stocks generally, tempering upside for WDC despite company-level positives. SNDK, WDC and STX Forecasts – Computer Companies Fall with Everything Else

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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