Flynn Zito Capital Management LLC Makes New Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Flynn Zito Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,624 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $280,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $791,317,000. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during 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 buying an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $221,800,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $78,347,000 after purchasing an additional 784,645 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital unveiled post-quantum cryptography-enabled Ultrastar UltraSMR hard drives, highlighting its push into next-generation, AI-era infrastructure security and potentially expanding enterprise demand. WD Advances Next-Generation Trusted Infrastructure with Industry’s First Post-Quantum Cryptography Hard Drives to Help Secure the Future of AI Data
• Positive Sentiment: Reports about AI storage demand suggest Western Digital and Seagate are benefiting from tighter supply and better pricing power in mass-capacity drives, which is supportive for revenue and margins. Seagate and Western Digital: AI Storage Demand Is Now Showing Up in Pricing Power
• Positive Sentiment: Broader coverage of the AI memory/storage boom is drawing investor attention to Western Digital as one of the names positioned to benefit from infrastructure spending. Memory Chip Stocks to Watch: Micron (MU), SK Hynix, and Western Digital Lead AI Boom
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains constructive, with Western Digital receiving a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating, but this is a supportive backdrop rather than a fresh catalyst. Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts
• Neutral Sentiment: Other articles on Micron and SanDisk largely reinforce the same industry theme: AI demand is improving the outlook for memory and storage suppliers, but they do not appear to be direct company-specific catalysts for Western Digital. Why Did Micron Stock Drop Today? Why Did Sandisk Stock Drop Today?

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on WDC shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $405.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $395.83.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $458.68 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $356.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $260.04. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.00 and a 1 year high of $525.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $158.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.38 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 2.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 363 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $377.09, for a total transaction of $136,883.67. Following the transaction, the insider owned 120,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,259,473.07. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 53,679 shares of company stock valued at $18,049,314 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.