Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by State of Michigan Retirement System

Key Points

• State of Michigan Retirement System trimmed its Western Digital stake by 5.6% in Q4, selling 6,100 shares and leaving 103,657 shares valued at about $17.86 million.
• Corporate insiders have been net sellers—92,711 shares sold over the past three months, including CEO Irving Tan selling 20,000 shares at $255.44 and Director Matthew Massengill selling 36,926 shares at $260.43—leaving insiders with just 0.18% ownership.
• Wall Street is increasingly bullish: firms like Cantor Fitzgerald ($500 PT) and Bank of America ($495 PT) hiked targets citing an HDD supply squeeze and HAMR rollouts, while the consensus rating is a "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $320.38.

State of Michigan Retirement System cut its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 5.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 103,657 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 6,100 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System's holdings in Western Digital were worth $17,857,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $5,196,484,000 after buying an additional 243,177 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at $791,317,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 11.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $456,737,000 after buying an additional 402,981 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Cantor Fitzgerald and Bank of America raised price targets sharply (Cantor to $500, BofA to $495), citing a structural HDD supply squeeze and durable pricing power that should boost WDC’s earnings outlook ahead of Q3. Cantor Fitzgerald Raises Western Digital Price Target to $500
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple broker notes (BofA, Wedbush, Cantor) and Cantor’s sector view point to a “clear path” for earnings growth driven by tight HDD supply and HAMR rollouts, supporting higher forward estimates for WDC. Price Target Hikes from BofA, Wedbush Ahead of Q3
• Positive Sentiment: UBS lifted its price target on WDC on expectations for a strong quarterly print, adding to analyst momentum pushing the stock higher on earnings anticipation. UBS Lifts PT on Western Digital
• Positive Sentiment: Broader industry coverage — Barron’s and Investopedia pieces — highlight durable demand from AI workloads and tight supply across HDD/SSD markets, a thematic tailwind benefiting WDC’s revenue and pricing power. Seagate, Western Digital Earnings Are Coming
• Neutral Sentiment: Pre‑Q3 estimates for SanDisk (SNDK) show tightening NAND supply and strong AI-driven demand — a sector signal that’s relevant for WDC but not a direct company release. Pre-Q3 Earnings: Is Sandisk Stock a Portfolio Must-Have?
• Neutral Sentiment: Market context — Fed meetings, geopolitical risk (Iran) and tech earnings cadence — create event risk that can amplify moves in high-beta names like WDC. 5 Things to Know Before the Stock Market Opens
• Negative Sentiment: Some investors are rotating within the memory/AI complex (example: Druckenmiller exiting SanDisk), which can pressure individual names even amid sector strength. Druckenmiller Sells Sandisk and Buys an AI Energy Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and liquidity — WDC’s trailing/forward P/E are elevated versus historical averages and today’s trading volume is below average, raising sensitivity to any earnings or macro miss.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 92,711 shares of company stock valued at $24,300,404. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, UBS Group set a $500.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $320.38.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $400.73 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $135.86 billion, a PE ratio of 40.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 1.77. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $306.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $228.57. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $40.18 and a 52-week high of $416.37.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 8.52 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is 5.02%.

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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