Stance Capital LLC Raises Stock Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Stance Capital LLC dramatically increased its Western Digital position in the fourth quarter, lifting its stake by 2,134.1% to 7,462 shares valued at about $1.29 million.
• Western Digital is drawing broad bullish analyst attention, with multiple firms raising price targets and the stock currently carrying a consensus Moderate Buy rating and an average target price of $450.46.
• The company has posted strong operating momentum, including a recent quarter where it beat earnings and revenue estimates, while demand from AI data centers and cloud storage continues to support the stock.

Stance Capital LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 2,134.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,462 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,128 shares during the period. Stance Capital LLC's holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,285,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its stake in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Avion Wealth boosted its position in Western Digital by 163.8% during the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Swiss RE Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. BOKF NA grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6,700.0% during the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the period. Finally, JPL Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group raised their target price on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $340.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $450.46.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is benefiting from surging demand tied to AI data centers and cloud storage, which is boosting investor confidence in the company’s earnings outlook. Western Digital stock surges on AI demand; Morgan Stanley bullish on WDC
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its view on WDC, reinforcing the idea that the stock still has room to run after the recent rally. Morgan Stanley Raises Price Target on Western Digital (WDC). Here is Why
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s earnings were said to nearly double on strong AI and cloud demand, which supports the recent move up in the shares. Western Digital Earnings Nearly Double on AI, Cloud Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s comments about unavoidable memory price hikes helped lift the broader memory/storage group, including WDC, by improving the pricing backdrop for the industry. SanDisk Jumps 11%, Western Digital Rises 7% After Apple Flags “Unavoidable” Memory Price Hikes

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company's stock, valued at $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. 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 have sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $746.23 on Monday. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $58.66 and a 12 month high of $799.87. The company has a market capitalization of $257.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.55 and a beta of 2.13. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $487.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $328.32.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the company earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. This is an increase from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 3.58%.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding WDC? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.