Western Digital Corporation $WDC Holdings Cut by Wedbush Securities Inc.

Posted by Geri Gentry on Oct 24th, 2026

Wedbush Securities Inc. cut its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Free Report) by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 31,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,074 shares during the quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $14,286,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,602,927,000. Anther Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth $901,601,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth $885,565,000. Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at $350,403,000. Finally, Trivest Advisors Ltd purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $627,606,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total value of $481,708.52. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 112,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,650,465.80. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC traded down $10.52 on Friday, hitting $343.67. 13,914,877 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,494,005. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $121.85 and a fifty-two week high of $799.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $128.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 2.11. The business’s fifty day moving average is $432.18 and its 200 day moving average is $479.51.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.11 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 69.20% and a return on equity of 56.91%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 55.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.78 EPS. Analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 4th will be paid a $0.1750 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 4th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.48%.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

Positive Sentiment: Western Digital reported fiscal Q1 2027 adjusted EPS of $4.64, above the roughly $4.09–$4.11 consensus, while revenue rose 55.5% year over year to $4.38 billion. Growth was driven by strong cloud and data-center demand, higher-capacity drives and improved pricing. Western Digital Q1 earnings and revenues beat estimates
Positive Sentiment: Management issued substantially stronger-than-expected fiscal Q2 guidance, calling for revenue of approximately $5.0 billion to $5.2 billion and adjusted EPS of $5.60 to $6.00, versus consensus estimates near $4.5 billion and $4.72, respectively. Western Digital forecasts strong second-quarter growth
Positive Sentiment: AI-related storage demand remains durable, with management citing growing requirements from inference, robotics and long-term data retention. Analysts and industry commentators expect HDDs to remain an important, cost-effective storage layer for data centers, potentially supporting demand visibility into 2030–2031. Western Digital CEO discusses durable AI storage demand
Positive Sentiment: Western Digital generated about $1.38 billion in free cash flow and increased its quarterly dividend 16.7% to $0.175 per share. JPMorgan also raised its price target to $650 and maintained an overweight rating. Western Digital Q1 revenue and dividend update
Neutral Sentiment: Other analysts remained bullish but reduced some price targets, reflecting elevated expectations and uncertainty around the pace of future growth. TD Cowen, for example, lowered its target to $430 while retaining a buy rating; Rosenblatt and Cantor Fitzgerald also cut targets but remained positive.
Negative Sentiment: The stock’s strong results were not enough to overcome a broad sell-off in AI, memory and technology shares. Investors are questioning whether hyperscaler capital spending can remain elevated and whether Western Digital’s unusually strong HDD pricing and margins are sustainable.
Negative Sentiment: Higher planned capital expenditures, possible industry supply increases, inventory concerns and execution risks surrounding the HAMR technology transition are weighing on sentiment. Management also acknowledged that HDD price growth could eventually moderate. Western Digital faces capex and supply concerns
Negative Sentiment: A disclosed insider sale of 807 shares worth approximately $306,660 added a modest sentiment overhang, although it was conducted under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and represented only a small portion of the insider’s holdings. SEC insider transaction filing

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on WDC. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $540.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Wall Street Zen raised Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley set a $668.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Friday. Zacks Research lowered Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $584.00.

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About Western Digital

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Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.