Truist Financial Corp Decreases Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Truist Financial Corp cut its Western Digital stake by 9.9% in the fourth quarter, selling 4,053 shares and leaving it with 37,012 shares valued at about $6.38 million.
• Despite that trim, institutional ownership remains very high, with 92.51% of Western Digital held by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive: several firms raised price targets after Western Digital’s earnings beat and stronger guidance, and MarketBeat shows a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” with a $395.83 target price.

Truist Financial Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 9.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 37,012 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 4,053 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp's holdings in Western Digital were worth $6,376,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $5,196,484,000 after buying an additional 243,177 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $791,317,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $456,737,000 after buying an additional 402,981 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WDC. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Western Digital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $340.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $395.83.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street analysts remain upbeat on Western Digital, with firms lifting price targets and Zacks upgrading the stock to Strong Buy, signaling rising confidence in demand trends and earnings momentum. Zacks Research upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage is highlighting Western Digital as a beneficiary of the AI memory and data-center storage supercycle, with demand for high-capacity storage solutions expected to stay elevated. Motley Fool article
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s recent earnings beat, raised guidance, and multiple target increases from analysts continue to support the stock’s sharp year-to-date gain and keep momentum investors engaged. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital also announced progress on simplifying its structure by unwinding its remaining Sandisk stake through share swaps and future distributions, which may help investors better value WDC as a more focused storage pure play. Yahoo Finance share swap article

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $480.09 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $165.48 billion, a PE ratio of 28.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 2.10. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $325.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $242.16. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $43.88 and a one year high of $483.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is 2.99%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 53,679 shares of company stock valued at $18,049,314. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Western Digital

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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