Candriam S.C.A. Has $41.56 Million Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Candriam S.C.A. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 1,019.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 346,141 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 315,207 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $41,558,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fielder Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $204,000. SPC Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter worth approximately $224,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital by 146.7% in the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,188 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $372,000 after buying an additional 1,896 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $561,000. Finally, a16z Perennial Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $223,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total value of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. This represents a 31.79% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on WDC shares. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Barclays boosted their target price on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Argus set a $300.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

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

Western Digital Stock Up 8.6%

WDC stock opened at $282.58 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $95.81 billion, a PE ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.80. 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 twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $296.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $205.35 and its 200-day moving average is $144.87.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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