Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Free Report) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 9,898 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,705,000. Western Digital comprises about 2.7% of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding.
A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $791,317,000. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $78,347,000 after acquiring an additional 784,645 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 53,655 shares of company stock valued at $18,179,038 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.
More Western Digital News
- Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is being viewed as a key beneficiary of surging AI infrastructure spending, with multiple reports citing stronger data-center storage demand and improving pricing conditions for memory and hard drives. Western Digital Stock Investors Need to See This
- Positive Sentiment: Coverage around the “memory melt-up” continues to support the stock, as peers like Micron and SanDisk rally on the same supply-tight, AI-demand narrative that is also benefiting WDC. Not Just Micron: Memory Melt-Up Pulls SanDisk Up 8%, Western Digital Up 10%
- Positive Sentiment: Evercore raised its price target on Western Digital to $575 and called the stock “underappreciated,” pointing to HDD demand tied to AI data-center buildouts. Hard Disk Drives Are Critical for AI but Western Digital Stock Is Still Underappreciated Here
- Positive Sentiment: Western Digital appointed former NVIDIA executive Manuvir Das to its board, reinforcing the company’s AI infrastructure credentials and signaling deeper alignment with the AI build-out theme. WD Appoints Manuvir Das to Board of Directors
- Neutral Sentiment: An insider sale by Cynthia L. Tregillis was disclosed, but it was small and executed under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan, so it does not appear to be a strong bearish signal. SEC filing
- Neutral Sentiment: Some articles note the stock has become very extended after a sharp multi-month run, which could lead to volatility even though the fundamental backdrop remains supportive. Sandisk Stock’s 4,000% Rise Is Happening Too Fast to Keep Up With
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $488.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group increased their target price on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $413.50.
View Our Latest Research Report on Western Digital
Western Digital Stock Up 0.1%
WDC stock opened at $531.18 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $391.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $279.27. The stock has a market cap of $183.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.71 and a beta of 2.10. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $51.17 and a 52-week high of $553.50.
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.
Western Digital Increases Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 2.99%.
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.
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