Rothschild Wealth LLC Purchases New Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Rothschild Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital during the fourth quarter, purchasing 2,594 shares valued at about $447,000.
• Institutional ownership remains very high, with several other funds also adding to or starting positions in WDC and 92.51% of the stock held by institutions and hedge funds.
• Western Digital has seen improving fundamentals and sentiment: it beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, raised its dividend to $0.15 per share, and analysts have generally turned bullish with a Moderate Buy consensus target of $416.63.

Rothschild Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,594 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $447,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WDC. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd bought a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $34,244,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. grew its stake in Western Digital by 399.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,900,000 after buying an additional 25,987 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 75.4% during the 4th quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,778,000 after buying an additional 4,068 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth $2,270,000. Finally, WESPAC Advisors LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth $793,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 214 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $539.63, for a total transaction of $115,480.82. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 117,157 shares of the company's stock, valued at $63,221,431.91. This represents a 0.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 54,405 shares of company stock valued at $18,575,428. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on WDC. Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Argus set a $300.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Citigroup increased their price target on Western Digital from $405.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $416.63.

Western Digital Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $546.20 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $188.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.61 and a beta of 2.13. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $400.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $284.43. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $51.17 and a fifty-two week high of $564.14.

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 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 analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The company's revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is benefiting from a strong AI memory supercycle, with memory and storage shares extending a parabolic rally as investors bet on sustained demand for data-center storage. Micron Rises 7%, Western Digital Climbs and SanDisk Climb 4% as Memory Stocks Extend Parabolic Run
• Positive Sentiment: Barclays raised its price target on Western Digital to $620 from $450 and kept an Overweight rating, citing strong memory and storage fundamentals. Barclays Raises its Price Target on Western Digital (WDC)
• Positive Sentiment: Evercore ISI also lifted its target on Western Digital to $575 from $410 while reiterating an Outperform rating, adding to bullish Wall Street sentiment. Here’s What Evercore Now Says About Western Digital Corp (WDC) Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital highlighted its role in AI infrastructure at Computex, framing storage as a core part of the AI data economy rather than just a secondary hardware category. WD at Computex 2026: AI Doesn't Just Run on Compute - It Runs on Data
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles noted heavy bullish momentum and strong valuation expansion in memory stocks, but also warned that the move has become highly extended and vulnerable to a sharp reversal if demand expectations cool. SanDisk Stock Near $1,700: Two Risks That Could Break the Momentum
• Neutral Sentiment: One filing-related article said Situational Awareness LP sold its stake in Western Digital, but the piece did not suggest a broader change in the company’s fundamentals. Western Digital Corporation (WDC): Leopold Aschenbrenner Is Selling This Stock

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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