Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Sells 26,717 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lessened its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 50.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 26,165 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 26,717 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $7,078,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Avion Wealth grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 163.8% in the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter worth about $50,000. Swiss RE Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Concord Wealth Partners bought a new position in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co boosted its stake in Western Digital by 109.4% in the 1st quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 268 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s earnings beat and guidance are lifting memory stocks, including Western Digital, on renewed optimism for the storage cycle.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts continue to view Western Digital favorably, with recent price targets clustering well above the broader market’s expectations.
• Positive Sentiment: Longer-term articles highlighted stronger customer buying patterns and contract shifts that could support a higher valuation for WDC. The Quiet Contract Shift Before Western Digital Stock’s Loud Re-Rating

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $641.73 on Thursday. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $62.13 and a 1-year high of $799.87. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $507.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $339.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.19 billion, a PE ratio of 38.31 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.Western Digital’s revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a boost 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 is presently 3.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on WDC. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. 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 MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $450.46.

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.