Korea Investment CORP Invests $172.40 Million in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Korea Investment CORP acquired a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 269,910 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $172,397,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Ares Financial Consulting LLC boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 45.5% in the 2nd quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 28.6% during the second quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 90 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 target price on shares of Western Digital and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $676.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Mizuho set a $590.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at $60,663,290.57. This trade represents a 0.70% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing 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 directly owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $459.44 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $552.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $433.31. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $74.57 and a one year high of $799.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $158.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.66 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 2.48%.

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.