Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Decreases Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lessened its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 50.5% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 26,165 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 26,717 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $7,078,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Western Digital by 11.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Western Digital by 11.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,737,000 after acquiring an additional 402,981 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% in 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 period. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s earnings beat and guidance are lifting memory stocks, including Western Digital, on renewed optimism for the storage cycle.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts continue to view Western Digital favorably, with recent price targets clustering well above the broader market’s expectations.
• Positive Sentiment: Longer-term articles highlighted stronger customer buying patterns and contract shifts that could support a higher valuation for WDC. The Quiet Contract Shift Before Western Digital Stock’s Loud Re-Rating

Western Digital Stock Down 4.3%

Western Digital stock opened at $641.73 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $221.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.31 and a beta of 2.13. The business has a fifty day moving average of $507.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $339.36. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $62.13 and a twelve month high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.36 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 4,674 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the sale, the insider owned 90,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,905,270.79. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup boosted their target price on Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. UBS Group increased their target price on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $450.46.

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.