Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by Candriam S.C.A.

Candriam S.C.A. cut its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 16.2% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 130,989 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 25,320 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $35,431,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth about $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after acquiring an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 70.4% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $512,107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,228,661 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts turned more bullish on Western Digital, with reports highlighting strong AI storage demand and multiple price-target hikes, including Susquehanna’s increase to $500 and broader Wall Street optimism. Seagate Stock Rises After Analyst Upgrades To Buy. Western Digital Nabs Price-Target Hike.
• Positive Sentiment: Recent articles say WDC is benefiting from a rebound in memory and storage stocks as investors regain confidence in AI infrastructure spending and storage demand. Western Digital and Seagate Surge 7%, Micron and SanDisk Climb 6% as Memory Selloff Reverses
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks and other commentary continue to frame Western Digital as an AI infrastructure winner, citing strong revenue growth, margin expansion, and an improved outlook for future earnings. Micron & One AI Infrastructure Stock to Buy Now for Big Upside
• Neutral Sentiment: One item flagged an apparent short-interest update showing zero shares reported, but the data appears unusual and is unlikely to be a meaningful trading signal on its own.
• Negative Sentiment: Some valuation-focused commentary suggests the stock may be getting expensive on earnings metrics even after its strong run, which could limit upside if growth expectations cool. Western Digital (WDC) Stock Looks Cheap On Cash Flow But Rich On Earnings

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Fox Advisors lowered Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $508.32.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total transaction of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at $39,905,270.79. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock traded up $4.54 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $582.59. The company had a trading volume of 4,801,298 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,095,433. The company has a market capitalization of $200.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.78 and a beta of 2.11. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $64.23 and a twelve month high of $799.87. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $555.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $372.84.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.58%.

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.