Optiver Holding B.V. Buys 4,336 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Optiver Holding B.V. grew its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 165.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 6,949 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,336 shares during the quarter. Optiver Holding B.V.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 7.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 229.7% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $307,000. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $618,000. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 46.4% in the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,256 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $784,000 after acquiring an additional 3,882 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Up 7.5%

WDC opened at $290.95 on Thursday. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $28.83 and a 12 month high of $309.90. The company has a market cap of $98.64 billion, a PE ratio of 29.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a 50 day moving average of $234.46 and a 200 day moving average of $163.31.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 67,392 shares of company stock valued at $17,235,141 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. UBS Group set a $306.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Argus set a $300.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized an additional $4.0B buyback and signaled confidence in cash generation — a clear demand driver and near?term support for the stock. QuiverQuant: Buyback expansion and bullish catalysts
• Positive Sentiment: Company outlined an AI?era HDD roadmap (40TB UltraSMR in customer qualification; path to 100TB+ HAMR by 2029) that supports higher long?term TAM and premium data?center positioning. QuiverQuant: HDD roadmap
• Positive Sentiment: Balance?sheet cleanup — sale/exchange of part of the remaining SanDisk stake tied to debt reduction — reduces leverage risk and signals management is monetizing non?core assets. QuiverQuant: Balance?sheet actions
• Neutral Sentiment: Relaunch of the consumer G?DRIVE brand could support external storage sales and brand visibility, but it’s a smaller, longer?lead commercial benefit versus the enterprise HDD narrative. MSN: WDC to relaunch G?DRIVE
• Negative Sentiment: Citron launched a public short call focused on SanDisk (SNDK), arguing the NAND cycle may be near a peak and flagging WDC’s exit from SanDisk as a cautionary signal — this can pressure sentiment around NAND exposure and raise questions about cycle timing. Yahoo Finance: Citron short call
• Negative Sentiment: Insider sales (Cynthia L. Tregillis sold small blocks on Feb. 23–24) were disclosed; amounts are modest relative to holdings but can amplify selling pressure or negative headlines on a down?day. InsiderTrades: Insider selling

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.