Ritholtz Wealth Management Makes New $766,000 Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 6,377 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $766,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth about $30,000. JNBA Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $34,000. Bogart Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 57.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 309 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 131.9% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 385 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $221.51 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $176.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $125.95. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $230.48. The stock has a market cap of $75.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.24, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $2.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.72 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 30.89% and a net margin of 21.37%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.78 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-2.030 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 7.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total value of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,090. The trade was a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 144,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,217,779.72. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Western Digital from $135.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Bank of America increased their price objective on Western Digital from $170.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $90.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $189.05.

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.