Silvant Capital Management LLC Acquires New Shares in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Silvant Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 57,622 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $36,805,000. Western Digital makes up approximately 1.1% of Silvant Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at $32,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on WDC. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Trading Up 1.5%

NASDAQ WDC opened at $469.05 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $161.67 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 2.14. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $554.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $433.12. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $74.42 and a 12 month high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share 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 net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.66 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at $60,663,290.57. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available 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 the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.