Western Digital Corporation $WDC Stock Position Lowered by Beta Wealth Group Inc.

Beta Wealth Group Inc. decreased its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 60.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,800 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,300 shares during the quarter. Beta Wealth Group Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $482,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of WDC. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 50.5% in the fourth quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,634 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $454,000 after acquiring an additional 884 shares in the last quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,866,000. FORA Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 167.0% in the 4th quarter. FORA Capital LLC now owns 61,385 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $10,575,000 after purchasing an additional 38,391 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $496,000. Finally, Kestra Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 13.9% in the 4th quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,941 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,402,000 after purchasing an additional 1,697 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $562.92 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $54.60 and a fifty-two week high of $602.54. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $447.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $307.91. The company has a market cap of $194.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.61 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.36 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. TD Cowen upped their price target on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $443.71.

Western Digital News Summary

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.