Western Digital Corporation $WDC Stock Holdings Increased by Penserra Capital Management LLC

Penserra Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 23.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 19,809 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,730 shares during the quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $2,377,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 124.5% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% in the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 207.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Benchmark raised 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. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Wedbush upped their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. This represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the business’s 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 ninety days, insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $282.58 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $95.81 billion, a PE ratio of 28.34, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $296.50. The company’s 50-day moving average is $205.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $143.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid 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 (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

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.