Swedbank AB Sells 4,462 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Swedbank AB reduced its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 224,315 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,462 shares during the period. Swedbank AB’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $38,643,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Avion Wealth boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 163.8% in the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 207.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Barclays raised their price objective on Western Digital from $405.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $395.83.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC opened at $484.28 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $373.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $269.18. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.00 and a 1 year high of $525.15. The company has a market capitalization of $166.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.91 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.36 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.99%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at $32,643,630.14. This trade represents a 7.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 107,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,137,796.14. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 53,655 shares of company stock worth $18,061,056 in the last quarter. 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.