Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Has $226.31 Million Stock Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group reduced its Western Digital stake by 5.7% in Q1, selling 50,393 shares and still holding 836,666 shares valued at about $226.31 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains broadly positive, with multiple firms raising price targets; the current consensus is a Moderate Buy and an average target price of $502.12.
• Western Digital beat quarterly expectations, reporting $2.72 EPS on $3.34 billion in revenue, while also lifting its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. cut its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 5.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 836,666 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 50,393 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned approximately 0.25% of Western Digital worth $226,310,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Global Trust Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the first quarter valued at about $47,000. Avion Wealth grew its position 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 buying an additional 113 shares during the period. Roble Belko & Company Inc bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at about $50,000. Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on WDC. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Western Digital from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $502.12.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Memory and storage shares rebounded sharply, lifting Western Digital along with peers like Micron, Seagate, and SanDisk as the recent selloff reversed and sentiment improved across the sector. Western Digital and Seagate Surge 7%, Micron and Sandisk Climb 6% as Memory Selloff Reverses
• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s announced $250 billion investment and the broader AI infrastructure trade are boosting confidence in storage and semiconductor names, with Western Digital viewed as a beneficiary of rising data center and memory demand. Western Digital Stock Lifts Following Micron's $250 Billion Investment
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary remain constructive on WDC, citing stronger revenue growth, margin expansion, upbeat guidance, and improving visibility in AI-related storage demand. Micron & One AI Infrastructure Stock to Buy Now for Big Upside
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital is accelerating its HAMR roadmap and signing long-term customer deals to meet AI-driven storage demand, which supports the growth story but is still a longer-term catalyst. Will Western Digital's HAMR Push Accelerate Future Growth?
• Neutral Sentiment: Susquehanna raised its price target on WDC to $500 while keeping a neutral rating, reinforcing that Wall Street sees value but is not uniformly bullish at current levels. Western Digital NASDAQ: WDC Price Target Raised to $500.00 at Susquehanna
• Negative Sentiment: Some recent coverage flags valuation risk, noting the stock has already had a huge run and may be expensive on earnings despite optimistic AI-storage expectations. Western Digital (WDC) Stock Looks Cheap On Cash Flow But Rich On Earnings

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $578.05 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $64.23 and a 52 week high of $799.87. The company's 50 day moving average price is $552.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $371.36. The company has a market capitalization of $199.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51 and a beta of 2.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last released 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. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.36 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders 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 currently owned by company insiders.

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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