Optiver Holding B.V. Has $834,000 Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Optiver Holding B.V. raised its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 165.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,949 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,336 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $834,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WDC. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,196,484,000 after acquiring an additional 243,177 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $593,045,000 after purchasing an additional 186,030 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its position in Western Digital by 8.5% in the second quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $354,247,000 after buying an additional 431,419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 17.1% during the second quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,735,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $239,022,000 after buying an additional 545,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group set a $306.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wall Street Zen cut Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $290.95 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $28.83 and a fifty-two week high of $309.90. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $234.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $163.31. The company has a market capitalization of $98.64 billion, a PE ratio of 29.18, a P/E/G ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.80.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 of this dividend 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%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 67,392 shares of company stock worth $17,235,141. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.