Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd Raises Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 20.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 125,696 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,752 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $15,091,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WDC. Groupama Asset Managment bought a new stake in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at about $353,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. raised its holdings in 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 worth $3,900,000 after purchasing an additional 25,987 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter worth about $5,755,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 18.0% during the third quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 76,371 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $9,169,000 after buying an additional 11,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ariadne Wealth Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $171,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Trading Up 3.9%

NASDAQ WDC opened at $316.93 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $107.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $319.62. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $263.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $184.69.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The company had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on WDC shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, New Street Research set a $250.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Technical bullishness — WDC (along with SanDisk) just formed a “golden cross” (50-day MA crossing above 200-day MA), a widely watched buy signal that tends to draw momentum traders and algorithmic flows. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Reputation/ESG boost — Western Digital was named one of Ethisphere’s 2026 World’s Most Ethical Companies for the eighth consecutive year, supporting longer-term institutional confidence. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Sector tailwind — Strong demand for memory/storage is lifting peers (e.g., SanDisk), which helps sentiment for WDC as investors rotate into the sector. Peer strength can sustain multiple expansion. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/idea flow — WDC is featured in screens and idea lists (Zacks and other outlets) highlighting AI and storage beneficiaries, which can attract fresh retail and quant interest. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation check / momentum note — Coverage notes the stock’s rapid gains and asks whether valuation has gotten stretched after the recent surge, leaving some investors cautious about chasing more upside. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary — Several “should you chase the rally” and movers pieces discuss WDC alongside broader market drivers (oil/geo risks, chip/memory moves), which can amplify short-term volatility without changing fundamentals. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Product promotion — A retail discount on a WD Red Plus NAS drive is noted but is unlikely to move the stock materially; it’s more a consumer/marketing datapoint than a corporate catalyst. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Short-term pullback / profit-taking — Coverage highlights a recent intraday decline (a pullback after the sprint higher) and notes WDC fell more than the broader market on that session, reflecting profit-taking and volatility after rapid gains. Read More.

Western Digital 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.