Western Digital Corporation $WDC Stake Raised by Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC

Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC grew its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 143.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,147 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,852 shares during the period. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,430,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 71.4% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 230,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $147,275,000 after buying an additional 96,078 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at $19,694,000. OneAscent Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,599,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $14,466,000. Finally, Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $8,307,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $256,287,591.02. This trade represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 807 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $380.00, for a total transaction of $306,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 108,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $41,392,640. This represents a 0.74% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 over the last 90 days. 0.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s quarterly results exceeded expectations, with earnings of $4.64 per share versus the $4.11 consensus and revenue of $4.38 billion, up 55.5% year over year. Management highlighted strong hard-disk-drive demand, higher pricing and growing demand for high-capacity drives used in cloud and AI infrastructure. WDC Q1 Earnings Call Highlights Pricing Strength and Storage Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Expectations for fiscal second-quarter 2027 have improved as analysts cite rising HDD prices, resilient demand and expanding AI workloads as potential drivers of revenue growth, margins and earnings. Zacks also added WDC to its Rank #1 Strong Buy list. WDC’s Fiscal Q2 Forecast Improves
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment provided an additional catalyst: Western Digital received an upgrade to a Zacks Rank #2 Buy, while one highly bullish Wall Street analyst reportedly sees substantial upside from current levels. The company’s recently announced 17% dividend increase also supports the investment case. Western Digital Rating Upgrade to Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital remains volatile after falling more than 50% from its 12-month high. Although its earnings growth and cloud-storage exposure are attracting investors, the large price swings indicate that expectations and valuation remain sensitive to changes in the storage cycle.
• Negative Sentiment: Shares faced some pressure in after-hours trading after Seagate Technologies reported results, as investors appeared concerned about read-through risks for the broader storage sector. Argus also issued a pessimistic price forecast, tempering the more optimistic analyst views. Western Digital Stock Slides After Hours

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Susquehanna set a $405.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 17th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Western Digital from $740.00 to $660.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $590.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $625.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $591.04.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $396.42 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $424.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $415.00. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $131.25 and a 1-year high of $799.87. The company has a market cap of $148.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 2.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.11 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 55.62% and a net margin of 69.20%. Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 55.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.78 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 20.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.1750 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 4th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 2.33%.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.