Balefire LLC Acquires Shares of 954 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Balefire LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 954 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $258,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of WDC. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth about $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in 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 period. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during 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 in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Western Digital by 70.4% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $512,107,000 after acquiring an additional 1,228,661 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,809,409 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $483,977,000 after purchasing an additional 159,167 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’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 value of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the sale, the insider owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 28,959 shares of company stock valued at $12,631,666. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is benefiting from a sector-wide rebound in semiconductors, with investors buying back into memory stocks after a steep pullback. Why Is Western Digital Stock Surging on Tuesday?
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that AI is driving stronger memory and storage demand are supporting the bull case for Western Digital, with analysts expecting a continued recovery in pricing and earnings power. NVIDIA Isn’t Leading AI Stocks in 2026 – These 2 Are Up Over 180%
• Positive Sentiment: Several market summaries say Western Digital is part of a broad AI trade rebound, alongside Micron and SanDisk, as investors look ahead to major tech earnings and a potential memory upgrade cycle. Chip Stocks Surge but Software Sector Feels the Pain Again
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital has also been mentioned in commentary about a possible 2027 hardware refresh cycle tied to AI memory growth, which could help long-term demand but is still more of a future thesis than a near-term catalyst. AAPL, HPQ, SNDK, WDC: Gene Munster Says ‘Memory Hog’ AI Will Trigger a Massive 2027 Upgrade Cycle

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WDC. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Weiss Ratings raised Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $685.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.32.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $548.39 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $189.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.74 and a beta of 2.11. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $66.04 and a fifty-two week high of $799.87. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $561.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $390.88.

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, topping 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 firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 earnings per share. The business’s 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, equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. 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.