Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by Generali Asset Management SPA SGR

Key Points

• Generali Asset Management SPA SGR cut its Western Digital stake by 46.5% in the fourth quarter, selling 11,038 shares and ending with 12,682 shares valued at about $2.19 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains positive, with multiple analysts raising price targets and the stock carrying an average Moderate Buy rating; the average target is $395.83.
• Western Digital reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates, and also raised its dividend to $0.15 per share quarterly while guiding Q4 2026 EPS to 3.10-3.40.

Generali Asset Management SPA SGR lessened its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 46.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,682 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 11,038 shares during the period. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR's holdings in Western Digital were worth $2,185,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in Western Digital by 124.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second 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. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% in the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Westfuller Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Avion Wealth increased its position in Western Digital by 163.8% in 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on WDC shares. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup boosted their price target on Western Digital from $405.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Western Digital from $335.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $395.83.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total transaction of $2,743,105.88. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at $29,137,796.14. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 53,679 shares of company stock worth $18,049,314 over the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Western Digital News Summary

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 Up 3.5%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $480.09 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $43.88 and a 52-week high of $483.87. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $325.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $242.16. The firm has a market cap of $165.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 2.10.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. The business's 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. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid 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 positive change from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.99%.

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.

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.