Brookstone Capital Management Grows Stock Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Brookstone Capital Management grew its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 135.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,433 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,129 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,470,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $34,244,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 399.8% in the third quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,900,000 after purchasing an additional 25,987 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 75.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 4,068 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth about $2,270,000. Finally, WESPAC Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $793,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s strong quarter is being treated as a read-through for the entire memory/storage group, with investors betting that AI infrastructure demand will keep Western Digital’s business environment favorable. Western Digital Stock And Seagate Get Boost From Big Micron Earnings Beat
• Positive Sentiment: Reports highlighted that AI-related memory demand is outpacing supply, which could support better pricing and margins for Western Digital if current trends continue. AI boom keeps memory chip makers in sweet spot, says expert
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentators said Micron’s results helped “justify elevated valuations” across memory names, fueling a sector-wide rally that included Western Digital. Sandisk, Western Digital, and others soar as Micron results ‘justify elevated valuations’
• Neutral Sentiment: Technical commentary noted a hammer pattern and improving earnings estimate revisions for WDC, which may be supporting bullish sentiment but is not a fundamental catalyst by itself. Here’s Why Western Digital (WDC) Is a Great ‘Buy the Bottom’ Stock Now

Western Digital Stock Up 4.9%

Shares of WDC stock opened at $675.39 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $513.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $342.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $232.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.32 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $62.53 and a fifty-two week 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were given 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 is 3.58%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Bank of America upped their price objective on Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. One research analyst has 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.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.