Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC Makes New $8.31 Million Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 13,005 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,307,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 71.4% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 230,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $147,275,000 after acquiring an additional 96,078 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at $2,270,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Western Digital by 33.6% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,122,095 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $193,303,000 after purchasing an additional 282,156 shares during the last quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at $20,889,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 145.8% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 5,950 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,529 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Sector rally supports WDC. SanDisk’s bullish long-term growth targets, including expectations for sustained flash-memory demand, boosted sentiment toward storage companies. Western Digital benefited from the read-through, particularly as investors anticipate continued AI infrastructure spending on HDD and NAND storage. SanDisk outlook article
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and quantitative signals improved. Zacks upgraded Western Digital to Rank #1, or “Strong Buy,” citing improving earnings prospects. WDC was also included among Zacks’ top momentum stocks, while JPMorgan reportedly raised its price target to $650. Zacks upgrade article
• Positive Sentiment: Recent results provide fundamental support. Western Digital’s latest quarter exceeded consensus estimates for both earnings and revenue, with revenue rising 43.8% year over year. Stronger pricing, high-capacity drive demand and AI-driven storage requirements are supporting expectations for continued growth. WDC sector rally article
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional positioning is mixed: JPMorgan and Capital World Investors added shares, while several large investors reduced holdings. The conflicting activity does not establish a clear institutional trend.
• Negative Sentiment: Elevated expectations remain a risk. Despite the earnings beat, WDC shares previously fell sharply because management’s guidance did not exceed demanding investor expectations. Concerns remain about moderating sequential growth, NAND pricing volatility and whether the AI-driven storage cycle has peaked. WDC earnings reaction article
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling may weigh on sentiment. CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares for approximately $8.9 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. Broader data shows substantial insider selling and no reported insider purchases during the past six months. CEO insider sale article

Western Digital Stock Up 4.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $508.80 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $73.14 and a 52-week high of $799.87. The stock has a market cap of $175.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02 and a beta of 2.14. The business has a fifty day moving average of $556.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $425.47.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.66 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.48%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price target on shares of Western Digital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 25,093 shares of company stock valued at $11,650,737 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.