University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. Buys Shares of 1,490 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,490 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $257,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Oarsman Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $275,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 60,987 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $10,506,000 after buying an additional 2,228 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $6,628,000. Seven Mile Advisory acquired a new position in Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $268,000. Finally, Mariner LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 77.9% in the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 135,188 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $23,319,000 after buying an additional 59,199 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Up 4.2%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $681.08 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $234.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.66 and a beta of 2.13. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $57.88 and a 52 week high of $729.92. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $462.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $316.21.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The firm’s revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 3.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $450.46.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley reiterated an Overweight view and lifted its price target to $650, reinforcing the bullish case that AI data-center buildouts are boosting hard-drive demand. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Investors are re-rating WDC as an AI storage winner, helped by reports of strong enterprise storage demand, sold-out HDD inventory, and broader enthusiasm for memory and storage stocks across the sector. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage highlights a strong quarterly report, with revenue up sharply year over year and management pointing to continued AI-driven demand, which supports the case for higher earnings and pricing power. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The upcoming June 22 SanDisk exchange/swap is seen as a near-term catalyst that could keep trading interest elevated. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Some commentary warns the stock may be due for a pullback after a very large run-up, suggesting volatility could remain high even if the longer-term AI thesis stays intact. Article Title

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.