Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.

Key Points

• Robeco Institutional Asset Management cut its Western Digital stake by 37% in the third quarter, selling 233,106 shares and retaining 397,574 shares worth about $180.7 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 92.51% of the company.
• Western Digital reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with $3.56 in EPS and $3.75 billion in revenue, up 43.8% year over year. Analysts remain broadly bullish, with a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $607.04.
• The stock’s outlook is tied closely to AI-driven data-center demand: Morgan Stanley expects strong results, but analysts have trimmed some price targets, while Jim Cramer warned Western Digital could be vulnerable if data-center expansion slows. Insiders have also sold about $11.0 million of shares over the past 90 days.

Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lowered its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 37.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 397,574 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 233,106 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. owned 0.11% of Western Digital worth $180,681,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter worth $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd acquired a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 45.5% during the second quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley said it expects Western Digital to deliver strong quarterly results and better-than-expected guidance, despite recent worries about AI financing and competition. The firm’s analyst called Western Digital and Seagate Technology “aggressive buys,” supporting the broader rebound in storage stocks. Seagate, Western Digital stocks gain as this analyst sees 80% upside
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is viewed as an AI infrastructure beneficiary because data centers require substantial hard-drive capacity. Investor attention is rising ahead of earnings, which could validate whether AI-driven storage demand is translating into stronger results and guidance. META Earnings & 2 Other AI-Related Reports to Watch This Week
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its Seagate price target but lowered its Western Digital target to $643 from $676. The revised target still implies substantial potential upside, but the reduction suggests analysts see some uncertainty in the near-term outlook. Seagate and Western Digital Stocks Sank Last Week
• Negative Sentiment: Jim Cramer warned that Western Digital and SanDisk could be among the most vulnerable stocks if data-center capacity expansion slows. Because recent profits and valuation enthusiasm are closely tied to AI infrastructure spending, any pullback could pressure earnings expectations and the share price. Cramer warns SanDisk and Western Digital are worst stocks if data center capacity shrinks

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $451.20, for a total value of $194,918.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 111,030 shares in the company, valued at $50,096,736. This represents a 0.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total transaction of $825,466.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 80,571 shares in the company, valued at $37,052,185.77. This represents a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 24,629 shares of company stock worth $11,033,404 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC opened at $364.32 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $439.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $479.46. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $117.23 and a 12 month high of $799.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $136.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.05, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 2.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.66 EPS. Western Digital's revenue for the quarter was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is currently 2.48%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $676.00 to $643.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup cut their target price on Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $607.04.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation NASDAQ: WDC is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.

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