AE Wealth Management LLC Makes New $316,000 Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

AE Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 2,633 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $316,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter worth about $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $78,347,000 after buying an additional 784,645 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Western Digital by 338.3% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 936,313 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $59,915,000 after buying an additional 722,702 shares during the period. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 17.1% during the second quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,735,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $239,022,000 after buying an additional 545,500 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total value of $1,833,922.20. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 136,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,932,163.62. The trade was a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total value of $277,956.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,524.46. The trade was a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Stock Up 8.6%

NASDAQ WDC opened at $282.58 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $28.83 and a 12 month high of $296.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market cap of $95.81 billion, a PE ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.80. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $205.35 and its 200 day moving average is $143.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released 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 net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 5.02%.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Board approved an incremental $4 billion share-repurchase program — a large, explicit capital-return move that supports demand for the stock and signals confidence from the board. Reuters: Western Digital adds $4 billion to buyback plan
• Positive Sentiment: Innovation Day unveiled an AI-focused storage roadmap (claims of up to 8x performance improvements and path to 100TB+ HDDs), reinforcing WDC’s positioning in AI training/data-center storage — supports longer-term demand expectations. PCWorld: WD maps out 8x performance boosts
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst community is upgrading WDC and lifting targets (several notes to Buy/Overweight and new street-high targets), which fuels short-term momentum and buy-side interest. Barchart: New street-high price target
• Positive Sentiment: Recent quarterly results beat estimates (revenue and EPS strength) and reinforce the “memory supercycle” / AI-driven storage demand thesis — supports earnings growth expectations. Zacks: WDC is up 5.85% in one week
• Neutral Sentiment: Sandisk’s dramatic rally (spun out from WDC) is lifting sentiment across the memory/storage complex — helpful for WDC thematically but also highlights increased sector volatility and comparatives. MarketBeat: Sandisk’s Swings Are Getting Bigger
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader policy moves to secure supply chains for critical minerals are supportive over the long run for domestic hardware supply, but they are not an immediate stock catalyst. MarketBeat: Critical minerals policy
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares (~$5.1M) in early February (SEC filing) — an insider sale that can prompt some near-term profit-taking despite his continued large ownership. SEC filing: Insider sale disclosure

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on WDC shares. Benchmark lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on Western Digital in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

Western Digital 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.