Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd Makes New Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd bought a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 333,750 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $57,495,000. Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd owned approximately 0.10% of Western Digital at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,196,484,000 after purchasing an additional 243,177 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 384,103 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 402,981 shares during the period. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on WDC shares. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $443.71.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC stock opened at $562.92 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $194.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.61 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $54.60 and a fifty-two week high of $602.54. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $447.23 and a 200-day moving average of $307.91.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.36 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue 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 analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 3.58%.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on Western Digital from $530 to $650 and reiterated an overweight rating, signaling more upside potential for the shares. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company announced a Sandisk share exchange with institutional investors, a move that has been interpreted as supportive of the stock and part of a broader capital strategy. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital highlighted AI-focused storage innovation at Computex, reinforcing the market’s view that it is well positioned to benefit from data-center and AI infrastructure spending. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts also pointed to strong free cash flow, a larger dividend, and a new $4 billion buyback plan, which supports the investment case by showing confidence in cash generation and shareholder returns. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital has been outperforming the broader market over the past year, and brokerages still generally rate the stock a moderate buy, which supports sentiment but is more of a confirmation than a new catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One recent market note said WDC slipped with the broader market after a hotter-than-expected CPI report revived rate-hike concerns, showing that macro pressure can still weigh on the stock at times. Article Title

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Company 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.