Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by Pictet Asset Management Holding SA

Key Points

• Pictet Asset Management cut its Western Digital stake by 37% in the first quarter, selling 126,767 shares and leaving it with 215,749 shares valued at about $58.3 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains constructive: several firms raised price targets, and the consensus rating is Moderate Buy with an average target price of $484.04. Melius Research also initiated coverage with a Buy rating and roughly 55% upside implied.
• Western Digital reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $2.72 topping estimates and revenue up 45.5% year over year to $3.34 billion. The company also lifted its quarterly dividend from $0.12 to $0.15 per share.

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lowered its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 37.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 215,749 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 126,767 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned approximately 0.06% of Western Digital worth $58,316,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Avion Wealth raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 163.8% during the fourth 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. Roble Belko & Company Inc acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 1st quarter worth approximately $50,000. Swiss RE Ltd. acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Concord Wealth Partners purchased a new position in Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its position in Western Digital by 109.4% during the 1st quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 268 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on WDC. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Western Digital from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $340.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. TD Cowen upped their price target on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $484.04.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Melius Research initiated coverage of Western Digital with a Buy rating and a price target implying roughly 55% upside, which is helping drive buying interest in the stock. Seagate (STX), Western Digital (WDC) Stocks Soar as Melius Assigns Buy Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Options activity also looks bullish, with more call buying than put buying, suggesting traders expect further gains in WDC. Analysts See 55% Upside in Seagate and Western Digital Despite Chip Sector Weakness
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is also benefiting from broader strength in AI infrastructure and memory demand, as investors rotate toward storage names tied to long-term data center growth. 3 AI Infrastructure Stocks Up 500%+ With More Upside in 2H 2026
• Positive Sentiment: The stock is also being lifted by a sector-wide rally after strong Micron results reinforced the view that AI-related memory and storage demand remains robust. Micron Falls 5%, SanDisk Drops 7%, but Western Digital Climbs 6%: What’s Behind the Memory-Storage Split?

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $651.80 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $224.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.91 and a beta of 2.13. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $523.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $349.26. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $62.94 and a fifty-two week high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.36 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This is a positive change from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.58%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. This trade represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value 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 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 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

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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