Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. Acquires New Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Adams Diversified Equity Fund Inc. purchased a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 20,500 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,545,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,244,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. raised its position in Western Digital by 399.8% during the third quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,900,000 after acquiring an additional 25,987 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 75.4% in the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,778,000 after purchasing an additional 4,068 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,270,000. Finally, WESPAC Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $793,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC stock opened at $586.45 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $518.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $344.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.01 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $62.65 and a one year high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company 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. Research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WDC. Wall Street Zen raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $450.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s strong quarterly results reinforced the AI-driven memory shortage theme, which has lifted Western Digital along with other memory stocks. Western Digital Stock And Seagate Get Boost From Big Micron Earnings Beat
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentators continue to highlight strong AI memory demand, rising estimate revisions, and favorable supply-demand dynamics for WDC. Micron’s Robust Q3 Results Raise Investor Attention on These 3 Stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports of SK Hynix planning a Nasdaq listing on July 10 add more attention to the broader memory ecosystem, but the direct impact on WDC is unclear. Is the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) a Buy Before July 10?
• Negative Sentiment: After the sector’s big rally, memory and semiconductor stocks are pulling back as investors take profits and worry that memory and storage costs may have gotten ahead of fundamentals. MU, SNDK, WDC: 3 Key Reasons Why Memory Stocks Are Falling Today
• Negative Sentiment: Broader tech-sector weakness is weighing on WDC alongside other chip names, adding to the selloff in the group. Semiconductor stocks retreat over worries about memory costs

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.