Wick Capital Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 1,996 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Wick Capital Partners opened a new position in Western Digital, buying 1,996 shares valued at about $344,000 in the fourth quarter.
• Western Digital continues to attract institutional interest, with several other hedge funds increasing or initiating stakes and 92.51% of the stock now held by institutional investors.
• The company is benefiting from strong AI and cloud storage demand, while analysts have been raising price targets and Western Digital recently beat quarterly earnings expectations and increased its dividend.

Wick Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,996 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $344,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd bought a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at $34,244,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 399.8% in the third quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,900,000 after buying an additional 25,987 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 75.4% during the 4th quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,778,000 after buying an additional 4,068 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at $2,270,000. Finally, WESPAC Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth $793,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550. Insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is benefiting from surging demand tied to AI data centers and cloud storage, which is boosting investor confidence in the company’s earnings outlook. Western Digital stock surges on AI demand; Morgan Stanley bullish on WDC
• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its view on WDC, reinforcing the idea that the stock still has room to run after the recent rally. Morgan Stanley Raises Price Target on Western Digital (WDC). Here is Why
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s earnings were said to nearly double on strong AI and cloud demand, which supports the recent move up in the shares. Western Digital Earnings Nearly Double on AI, Cloud Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s comments about unavoidable memory price hikes helped lift the broader memory/storage group, including WDC, by improving the pricing backdrop for the industry. SanDisk Jumps 11%, Western Digital Rises 7% After Apple Flags “Unavoidable” Memory Price Hikes

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $746.23 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $257.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.55 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $58.66 and a 52 week high of $799.87. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $487.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $327.17.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. The company's 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. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a boost 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital's payout ratio is currently 3.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $450.46.

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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