Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Purchases 79,418 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 887,059 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 79,418 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $152,814,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $6,281,000 after acquiring an additional 5,731 shares during the last quarter. LBP AM SA purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth $641,000. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth $34,244,000. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 75.4% in the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,778,000 after acquiring an additional 4,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth $636,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup increased their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Argus set a $300.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.00.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $343.43 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $33.42 and a one year high of $349.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $116.44 billion, a PE ratio of 34.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.77. The business’s fifty day moving average is $284.31 and its 200 day moving average is $208.57.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. Western Digital’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.02%.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley and Bernstein reaffirm/raised ratings and price targets, supporting near-term upside from fresh bullish sell‑side checks on HDD demand. Morgan Stanley and Bernstein Positive on Western Digital (WDC)
• Positive Sentiment: UBS highlights potential for another ~40% gain in memory prices, a macro tailwind that would lift margins and pricing power for WDC’s storage products. UBS Says Memory Prices Could Still Gain 40%. Does That Make Western Digital Stock a Buy Here?
• Positive Sentiment: MarketBeat and other commentators frame recent pullbacks in memory/storage names as buying opportunities given AI-driven demand — this narrative supports continued investor interest. Memory Wipe: The Great TurboQuant Miscalculation (WDC)
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital announced an open‑source quantum error‑correction collaboration — positive for long‑term tech leadership but unlikely to move near‑term revenue. Western Digital Taps Open Source Quantum Error Correction For Future Storage
• Neutral Sentiment: Seagate’s divestiture of Lyve Cloud to Wasabi refocuses that rival on mass‑capacity storage; this reshapes competitive dynamics but is ambiguous for WDC’s market share. Seagate Divests Lyve Cloud to Enhance Core Storage Focus
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage pieces on other storage names (Micron, Silicon Motion) and a Yahoo feature on market winners provide sector context but are not WDC‑specific catalysts. The Cheapest Stock in the S&P 500 Is Up 520% Over the Last Year
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest data this cycle is noisy/zeroed out (appears to show an increase but lists 0 shares), so it provides little reliable signal for immediate positioning.
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation concerns after a multi‑bagger year: commentary asks whether WDC is getting expensive following a ~7x one‑year surge, which could prompt profit‑taking or higher volatility. Is It Too Late To Consider Western Digital (WDC) After Its 7x One Year Surge?
• Negative Sentiment: Some analysts and articles are rotating preference to Seagate as the top pick, highlighting competitive pressure and relative valuation tradeoffs that could divert flows from WDC. Move Over, Western Digital! Why Seagate Is the New Top Stock Pick

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at $32,643,630.14. This trade represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.