Benjamin Edwards Inc. Buys New Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $480,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 124.5% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its position in Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its position in Western Digital by 551.4% during the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Avion Wealth lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 163.8% in the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street analysts remain upbeat on Western Digital, with firms lifting price targets and Zacks upgrading the stock to Strong Buy, signaling rising confidence in demand trends and earnings momentum. Zacks Research upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage is highlighting Western Digital as a beneficiary of the AI memory and data-center storage supercycle, with demand for high-capacity storage solutions expected to stay elevated. Motley Fool article
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s recent earnings beat, raised guidance, and multiple target increases from analysts continue to support the stock’s sharp year-to-date gain and keep momentum investors engaged. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital also announced progress on simplifying its structure by unwinding its remaining Sandisk stake through share swaps and future distributions, which may help investors better value WDC as a more focused storage pure play. Yahoo Finance share swap article

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total transaction of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 53,679 shares of company stock worth $18,049,314 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $480.09 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $165.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.66, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 2.10. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $325.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $242.16. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $43.88 and a 1-year high of $483.87.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a boost 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 dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 2.99%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WDC. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $488.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $395.83.

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.