Western Digital Corporation $WDC Stake Lessened by North Dakota State Investment Board

Posted by George Bondi on Oct 29th, 2026

North Dakota State Investment Board reduced its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Free Report) by 18.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,612 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,479 shares during the period. North Dakota State Investment Board’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $4,823,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WDC. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in Western Digital by 71.4% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 230,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $147,275,000 after purchasing an additional 96,078 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp bought a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter worth $19,694,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter valued at $14,466,000. OneAscent Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter valued at $1,599,000. Finally, Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter valued at $8,307,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on WDC shares. Mizuho set a $490.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $625.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 23rd. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on Western Digital from $660.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Western Digital from $720.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.04.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Western Digital

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $396.42 on Thursday. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $131.25 and a fifty-two week high of $799.87. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $424.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $415.00. The firm has a market cap of $148.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 2.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $0.53. The business had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 69.20% and a return on equity of 55.62%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 55.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 20.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 4th will be paid a $0.1750 dividend. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 4th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.33%.

More Western Digital News

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

Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s quarterly results exceeded expectations, with earnings of $4.64 per share versus the $4.11 consensus and revenue of $4.38 billion, up 55.5% year over year. Management highlighted strong hard-disk-drive demand, higher pricing and growing demand for high-capacity drives used in cloud and AI infrastructure. WDC Q1 Earnings Call Highlights Pricing Strength and Storage Demand
Positive Sentiment: Expectations for fiscal second-quarter 2027 have improved as analysts cite rising HDD prices, resilient demand and expanding AI workloads as potential drivers of revenue growth, margins and earnings. Zacks also added WDC to its Rank #1 Strong Buy list. WDC’s Fiscal Q2 Forecast Improves
Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment provided an additional catalyst: Western Digital received an upgrade to a Zacks Rank #2 Buy, while one highly bullish Wall Street analyst reportedly sees substantial upside from current levels. The company’s recently announced 17% dividend increase also supports the investment case. Western Digital Rating Upgrade to Buy
Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital remains volatile after falling more than 50% from its 12-month high. Although its earnings growth and cloud-storage exposure are attracting investors, the large price swings indicate that expectations and valuation remain sensitive to changes in the storage cycle.
Negative Sentiment: Shares faced some pressure in after-hours trading after Seagate Technologies reported results, as investors appeared concerned about read-through risks for the broader storage sector. Argus also issued a pessimistic price forecast, tempering the more optimistic analyst views. Western Digital Stock Slides After Hours

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total value of $481,708.52. Following the sale, the insider owned 112,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,650,465.80. This trade represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total transaction of $825,466.65. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 80,571 shares in the company, valued at $37,052,185.77. This represents a 2.18% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Profile

(Free Report)

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.