Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by Pinkerton Wealth LLC

Key Points

• Pinkerton Wealth LLC cut its Western Digital stake by 41% in the fourth quarter, selling 17,203 shares and leaving it with 24,799 shares valued at about $4.27 million.
• Western Digital has been getting a wave of bullish analyst attention tied to AI-driven storage demand, with firms like Citigroup and Evercore lifting price targets to as high as $500 and consensus rating remaining Moderate Buy.
• The company posted better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $2.72 versus $2.39 expected and revenue up 45.5% year over year, while also raising its quarterly dividend to $0.15 per share.

Pinkerton Wealth LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 41.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,799 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 17,203 shares during the quarter. Pinkerton Wealth LLC's holdings in Western Digital were worth $4,272,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. ABN Amro Investment Solutions grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 101.3% during the fourth quarter. ABN Amro Investment Solutions now owns 17,305 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,981,000 after buying an additional 8,709 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc grew its holdings in Western Digital by 105.5% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 3,161 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,623 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its holdings in Western Digital by 168.1% in the fourth quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 52,882 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $9,111,000 after purchasing an additional 33,158 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 243.2% in the fourth quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 827 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $143,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management UK Ltd. acquired a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,067,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary continue to highlight Western Digital’s role in the AI storage buildout, arguing that surging demand for enterprise SSDs and NAND flash could support a longer-lasting pricing upcycle. Recent coverage also points to raised fair-value estimates and higher price targets as expectations for earnings power improve. Why The Western Digital (WDC) Story Is Shifting On New Earnings And AI Storage Expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s inclusion in the 2026 S&P Dow Jones Best-in-Class Index North America may provide an incremental technical boost from index-related buying and reinforces improving investor perception around the company. Western Digital Corporation (WDC) Included in 2026 S&P Dow Jones Best-in-Class Index North America
• Positive Sentiment: A fresh thesis piece framed Western Digital as a beneficiary of a broader “AI rotation” into data storage, with tight NAND supply and rising enterprise demand seen as catalysts for margin and revenue expansion. The Great AI Rotation: Cashing In on Data
• Neutral Sentiment: One valuation-focused article says the stock has cooled after a strong run, with recent price action taking a breather even as longer-term momentum remains strong. This suggests some investors may be pausing to reassess whether the rally has gone too far. Western Digital (WDC) Valuation Check After Strong 1-Year Return And Recent Share Price Cooldown
• Negative Sentiment: Sector weakness also pressured Western Digital, with reports that memory and storage stocks fell as investors worried about AI infrastructure capacity, supply-chain constraints, and a broader rotation out of the group ahead of Nvidia’s earnings. Micron, Seagate, Western Digital Sink On Capacity Crunch Fears
• Negative Sentiment: Another report said Western Digital slid alongside Seagate as the AI infrastructure rally was tested, indicating near-term profit-taking and weaker sentiment across the memory complex. Seagate Stock And Western Digital Slide Further As AI Infrastructure Rally Tested

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WDC. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $405.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Argus set a $300.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and set a $500.00 price target 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, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $395.83.

Western Digital Trading Up 0.8%

WDC stock opened at $459.62 on Thursday. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $49.00 and a one year high of $525.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.42 billion, a PE ratio of 27.44 and a beta of 2.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $364.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $264.52.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 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 company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.36 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. 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. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is currently 2.99%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 53,679 shares of company stock worth $18,049,314 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

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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