SBI Securities Co. Ltd. Purchases 3,155 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

SBI Securities Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 137.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,443 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,155 shares during the quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $938,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in Western Digital by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after buying an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 229.7% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Western Digital by 55.3% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $152,000 after acquiring an additional 845 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, February 6th. New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $395.83.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts are lifting forecasts and price targets on stronger AI/data‑center storage demand; BofA and others raised targets and earnings estimates, supporting higher valuation expectations. BofA Lifts PT on Western Digital
• Positive Sentiment: Q3 beat and upward guidance momentum: recent earnings beats and upward EPS guidance revisions have prompted estimate upgrades from research shops (Zacks, others), underpinning bullish sentiment. Earnings Estimates Rising for WDC
• Positive Sentiment: Dividend increase: WDC raised its quarterly payout to $0.15 (20% hike), signaling confidence and attracting yield‑sensitive and income‑plus‑growth investors, though yield remains small. Western Digital Dividend Increase
• Positive Sentiment: Share-swap to unwind SanDisk stake: WDC is exchanging Sandisk shares for WDC stock as it exits the remaining Sandisk position — a move that simplifies capital structure and may increase WDC’s pure‑play valuation. Western Digital Share Swap
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector supply dynamics: reporting suggests AI-driven memory tightness could keep pricing elevated (benefit to margins), while some consumer SSD discounts appear episodic — supportive but mixed for near‑term revenue mix. AI and Memory Prices
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: senior executives, including CEO Irving Tan and other officers, have sold shares recently (pre‑arranged plans and filings). Markets often view sizeable or clustered insider sales as a negative near term catalyst. Irving Tan Share Sale

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. The trade was a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 53,679 shares of company stock valued at $18,049,314 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Trading Down 4.0%

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $463.91 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $325.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $242.16. The stock has a market cap of $159.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.70, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 2.10. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $43.88 and a 1-year high of $483.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm 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. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.99%.

Western Digital Company 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.