Diversified Trust Co. bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Free Report) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 4,859 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $837,000.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Western Digital by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,196,484,000 after buying an additional 243,177 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 8.5% in the second quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $354,247,000 after acquiring an additional 431,419 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 11.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 11.8% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,737,000 after purchasing an additional 402,981 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Western Digital News Roundup
Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Cloud growth and margin upside highlighted as a key thesis for WDC’s next leg of revenue and margin expansion. Western Digital: Cloud Key Driver To Growth And Margins
- Positive Sentiment: Technical market action: a recent trading signal coincided with a rebound in WDC shares, supporting near-term momentum. Western Digital Shares Rebound, Climb 3% After Key Trading Signal
- Positive Sentiment: Analyst comparisons favor WDC over peers like NetApp on AI-driven storage demand and cash returns, reinforcing buy-case narratives. Western Digital vs. NetApp: Which Data Storage Stock is the Better Buy?
- Positive Sentiment: WD is part of an open-source quantum error correction collaboration (OQD + QuScript), signaling R&D breadth that may support longer-term enterprise opportunities. OQD Launches Open-Source Collaboration with WD and QuScript to Advance Quantum Error Correction
- Neutral Sentiment: Retail promotions and deep discounts on WD-branded SSDs/HDDs (Amazon/Best Buy sales) could boost volume but also reflect aggressive consumer pricing. Upgrade your NAS storage with this WD 2TB SSD – now $240 off during Amazon’s Spring Sale
- Negative Sentiment: Google’s new TurboQuant algorithm has raised investor concerns that AI models could require materially less memory, potentially reducing hardware demand long-term. Google Just Unveiled TurboQuant: Should You Sell Sandisk Stock Now?
- Negative Sentiment: Sector reaction and a Micron selloff reflect investor skepticism about how sustainable AI-driven memory demand will be if efficiency improvements proliferate. Micron Drop Raises A Bigger AI Question
- Negative Sentiment: Broader market and interest-rate concerns are pressuring computer and memory stocks generally, tempering upside for WDC despite company-level positives. SNDK, WDC and STX Forecasts – Computer Companies Fall with Everything Else
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Insider Activity at Western Digital
In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 8,518 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.32, for a total transaction of $2,174,815.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 99,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,347,148.32. The trade was a 7.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.
Western Digital Trading Up 0.7%
NASDAQ:WDC opened at $275.34 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $319.62. The stock has a market cap of $93.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.62, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $272.75 and a 200-day simple moving average of $193.09.
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for 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%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Western Digital Dividend Announcement
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.
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.
See Also
Want to see what other hedge funds are holding WDC? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Free Report).
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