Teacher Retirement System of Texas Raises Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 10.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 57,888 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,386 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Western Digital were worth $6,950,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 2.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $593,045,000 after purchasing an additional 186,030 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 8.5% in the second quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $354,247,000 after purchasing an additional 431,419 shares in the last quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 17.1% during the 2nd quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,735,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $239,022,000 after purchasing an additional 545,500 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth about $220,680,000. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on WDC. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 9th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 31st. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $206.29.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 447 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.00, for a total value of $102,363.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 143,318 shares in the company, valued at $32,819,822. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. The trade was a 33.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 26,816 shares of company stock valued at $4,116,148. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $240.85 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $184.11 and a 200-day moving average of $132.01. The firm has a market cap of $82.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $250.44.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.21. Western Digital had a return on equity of 30.89% and a net margin of 21.37%.The company had revenue of $2.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.72 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.78 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.4% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-2.030 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.28%.

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.