Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Bought by Krilogy Financial LLC

Key Points

• Krilogy Financial LLC increased its Western Digital stake by 40.9% in Q1, ending with 14,820 shares valued at about $4.0 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains constructive: several analysts recently raised price targets, and the stock carries a Moderate Buy consensus with an average target of $450.46.
• Western Digital reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $2.72 and revenue of $3.34 billion, while also boosting its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share.

Krilogy Financial LLC grew its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 40.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,820 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,301 shares during the quarter. Krilogy Financial LLC's holdings in Western Digital were worth $4,009,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth about $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 267.6% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $291,422,000 after purchasing an additional 1,231,477 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. TD Cowen upped their target price 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. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $450.46.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the business'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 transaction, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts have remained constructive on Western Digital, with recent price-target increases from firms including JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, reflecting optimism about earnings power and AI-related storage demand.
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s recent quarterly results beat expectations, with revenue and EPS ahead of estimates and management guiding for continued expansion, which supports the longer-term bull case.
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor attention has stayed high around Western Digital as the stock has rallied strongly this year, keeping it in focus as a leveraged AI-memory play.
• Negative Sentiment: Today’s decline appears tied to a broad selloff in semiconductor and memory names as investors worry about an AI-bubble-style valuation reset and weakness in Asian chip markets.
• Negative Sentiment: Western Digital also faces some near-term share-overhang concerns after disclosed share-exchange transactions involving Sandisk stock, which may have added pressure on the stock.

Western Digital Stock Down 8.4%

Shares of WDC stock opened at $670.75 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $231.19 billion, a PE ratio of 40.04 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $60.56 and a 52-week high of $799.87. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $501.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $335.98.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

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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