Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Increases Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 65.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 42,118 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,694 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $26,901,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rational Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth $5,301,000. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 29.3% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 3,841 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,453,000 after purchasing an additional 871 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $3,324,000. Penn Capital Management Company LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter worth about $382,000. Finally, Greenleaf Trust raised its stake in Western Digital by 4.5% during the second quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 5,323 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,400,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $450.44 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $516.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $443.28. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $77.90 and a 1-year high of $799.87. The company has a market cap of $155.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.66 EPS. The firm’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. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This represents a 3.36% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total value of $481,708.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 112,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,650,465.80. The trade was a 0.89% 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 23,642 shares of company stock worth $10,676,659 in the last three months. 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.