Empowered Funds LLC Reduces Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Empowered Funds LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 39.4% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 184,287 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 119,930 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $49,848,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. IMG Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 853.8% during the first quarter. IMG Wealth Management Inc. now owns 124 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Excelsior Advisor Network LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the first quarter worth about $392,000. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Western Digital in the first quarter valued at about $6,477,000. SummitTX Capital L.P. acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $4,749,000. Finally, ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $162,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. 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 ninety days, insiders have sold 28,959 shares of company stock valued at $12,631,666. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the subject of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Bank of America upped their price target on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price objective on Western Digital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.32.

Western Digital Stock Down 4.2%

Shares of WDC stock opened at $497.92 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $171.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.73 and a beta of 2.11. The business has a 50 day moving average of $565.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $400.49. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $68.67 and a 52 week high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a $0.15 dividend. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 3.58%.

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.