Titiun Yejiel Takes Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Titiun Yejiel acquired 5,453 Western Digital shares worth approximately $3.48 million in the second quarter, making WDC about 3% of its portfolio. Institutional investors overall own 92.51% of the company.
• Western Digital reported strong quarterly results, with adjusted EPS of $3.56 beating estimates and revenue rising 43.8% year over year to $3.75 billion. AI-driven storage demand, stronger pricing and positive analyst sentiment are supporting the stock.
• Risks include elevated expectations and insider selling. Several insiders sold shares recently, including CEO Irving Tan, while concerns remain about slowing sequential growth, NAND pricing volatility and whether the AI-related storage rally has peaked.

Titiun Yejiel acquired a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 5,453 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,483,000. Western Digital makes up about 3.0% of Titiun Yejiel's investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its stake 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 during the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Swiss RE Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. BOKF NA grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6,700.0% in the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPL Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Sector rally supports WDC. SanDisk’s bullish long-term growth targets, including expectations for sustained flash-memory demand, boosted sentiment toward storage companies. Western Digital benefited from the read-through, particularly as investors anticipate continued AI infrastructure spending on HDD and NAND storage. SanDisk outlook article
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and quantitative signals improved. Zacks upgraded Western Digital to Rank #1, or “Strong Buy,” citing improving earnings prospects. WDC was also included among Zacks’ top momentum stocks, while JPMorgan reportedly raised its price target to $650. Zacks upgrade article
• Positive Sentiment: Recent results provide fundamental support. Western Digital’s latest quarter exceeded consensus estimates for both earnings and revenue, with revenue rising 43.8% year over year. Stronger pricing, high-capacity drive demand and AI-driven storage requirements are supporting expectations for continued growth. WDC sector rally article
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional positioning is mixed: JPMorgan and Capital World Investors added shares, while several large investors reduced holdings. The conflicting activity does not establish a clear institutional trend.
• Negative Sentiment: Elevated expectations remain a risk. Despite the earnings beat, WDC shares previously fell sharply because management’s guidance did not exceed demanding investor expectations. Concerns remain about moderating sequential growth, NAND pricing volatility and whether the AI-driven storage cycle has peaked. WDC earnings reaction article
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling may weigh on sentiment. CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares for approximately $8.9 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. Broader data shows substantial insider selling and no reported insider purchases during the past six months. CEO insider sale article

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total value of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, 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 90 days, insiders sold 25,093 shares of company stock valued at $11,650,737. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup dropped their target price on Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 7th. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Price Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $508.80 on Monday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $556.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $426.77. The stock has a market cap of $175.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02 and a beta of 2.14. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $73.14 and a twelve month high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued 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 is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is currently 2.48%.

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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