Excelsior Advisor Network LLC Invests $392,000 in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Excelsior Advisor Network LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 1,451 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $392,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 7.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after buying an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 229.7% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 55.3% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 845 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Bank of America raised their price target on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $520.32.

Western Digital Stock Down 4.2%

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $497.92 on Tuesday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $68.67 and a 52-week high of $799.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.73 and a beta of 2.11. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $565.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $400.49.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 3.58%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 28,959 shares of company stock worth $12,631,666 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.