Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by Primecap Management Co. CA

Primecap Management Co. CA reduced its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 965,070 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 107,020 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA owned approximately 0.28% of Western Digital worth $115,866,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. ORG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its position in 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 acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 86.9% during the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% during the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Barclays boosted their price target on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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 $4.0 billion share repurchase and flagged an AI/data-center HDD roadmap (40TB UltraSMR in customer qualification; path to 100TB+ HAMR). That buyback plus AI positioning drove the recent rally. QuiverQuant: Buyback expansion and AI-era HDD roadmap
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks added WDC to its top growth/momentum lists and published bullish commentary — reinforcing short-term investor interest and buy-side flows into WDC as an AI/data-center beneficiary. Zacks: Momentum Stock Note
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks also added WDC to its Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) growth stocks list, a spotlight that can attract momentum-focused flows. Zacks: Best Growth Stocks to Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital plans to relaunch its G-DRIVE external storage brand — a product/marketing initiative that supports consumer positioning but is not an immediate earnings catalyst. MSN: G-DRIVE Relaunch
• Neutral Sentiment: Small insider sale disclosed (Cynthia Tregillis sold ~130 shares) — immaterial size but often highlighted by media during volatile sessions. SEC Filing: Insider Sale
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that WDC is exiting most of its remaining SanDisk stake via secondary sale / exchange have raised concerns about added share supply and a focus on balance-sheet cleanup rather than buybacks — a key near-term overhang. Yahoo Finance: SanDisk stake sale and balance-sheet actions
• Negative Sentiment: Citron Research launched a short call focused on Sandisk / the NAND cycle and highlighted WDC’s SanDisk exit as a potential warning — the report can amplify downside while investors digest valuation and cycle risk. Yahoo Finance: Citron Short on Sandisk

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total value of $1,833,922.20. Following the sale, the insider owned 136,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,932,163.62. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 67,392 shares of company stock valued at $17,235,141 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC stock opened at $282.25 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $236.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $164.14. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $309.90. The firm has a market cap of $95.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.67 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.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. 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 is 5.02%.

About Western Digital

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.