Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by Estate Counselors LLC

Estate Counselors LLC lowered its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 70.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,500 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 18,087 shares during the period. Estate Counselors LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $2,029,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Western Digital by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,884,000 after acquiring an additional 384,103 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its stake in 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 valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 70.4% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $512,107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,228,661 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,809,409 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $483,977,000 after purchasing an additional 159,167 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at $63,640,420.80. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,959 shares of company stock worth $12,631,666. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

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

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. 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 yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $560.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $685.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $520.32.

Western Digital 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.