Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. Takes Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. bought a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 3,742 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $645,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP grew 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 buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth $221,800,000. Finally, National Pension Service increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 267.6% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $291,422,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231,477 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total value of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is getting momentum-stock attention from analysts and traders who see AI-driven data-center growth supporting long-term demand for high-capacity storage. Seagate & Another AI Memory Momentum Stock With Big Upside
• Positive Sentiment: Shares are also benefiting from an industry-wide surge in memory stocks after reports that Apple flagged “unavoidable” memory price hikes, reinforcing pricing power across the sector. SanDisk Jumps 11%, Western Digital Rises 7% After Apple Flags “Unavoidable” Memory Price Hikes
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage continues to frame WDC as a strong momentum name, with articles suggesting more upside could remain after its recent run. Western Digital (WDC) Stock Could Close Out the Week with Major Gains
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts have been raising price targets and highlighting WDC’s strong profitability, which is adding to bullish sentiment. Morgan Stanley Raises Price Target on Western Digital (WDC). Here is Why
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market rotation away from tech and into financials could create near-term volatility for technology stocks, including WDC. Financials Rose, Tech Fell Before Kevin Warsh Fed Debut

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $746.23 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $257.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.55 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $58.66 and a one year high of $799.87. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $478.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $324.21.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital’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. As a group, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. Mizuho increased their price target on Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Barclays raised their price objective on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $450.46.

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.