EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 20.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,548 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,443 shares during the quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $2,312,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth about $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 70.4% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $512,107,000 after buying an additional 1,228,661 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 6.0% in the fourth 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 worth $483,977,000 after purchasing an additional 159,167 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Weiss Ratings raised Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Two investment analysts have 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, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $520.32.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% 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 Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the 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 sale, the insider owned 114,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,663,290.57. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 29,767 shares of company stock valued at $13,059,607 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $462.04 on Thursday. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $69.30 and a 1-year high of $799.87. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $565.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $404.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.58 and a beta of 2.11.

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, beating 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 business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Strong demand for high-capacity hard drives from cloud providers and data centers, driven by rapidly increasing AI-generated data, is supporting Western Digital’s growth outlook. Tighter global supply could also improve pricing and margins. Why Is Western Digital Stock Surging on Wednesday?
• Positive Sentiment: Seagate’s strong results provided a read-through for Western Digital, reinforcing expectations that demand for enterprise storage remains healthy. Analysts, including Wedbush and Citigroup, have also maintained bullish views and elevated price targets. Seagate, SK Hynix, Ford, Vertiv, and More Stocks That Explain Today’s Market
• Neutral Sentiment: Wall Street expects earnings growth in Western Digital’s next report. Investors will focus on whether AI-related storage demand, supply tightness and pricing power can support results and forward guidance after the stock’s sharp rally. Western Digital Reports Next Week
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital previously exceeded quarterly estimates, reporting $2.72 in earnings per share versus a $2.39 consensus and revenue of $3.34 billion, up 45.5% year over year. That performance raises expectations for the upcoming report.
• Negative Sentiment: The broader AI memory trade has suffered a severe sell-off, with investors reducing exposure to high-growth chip and storage names. Western Digital has retreated substantially from its June high, increasing concerns that its valuation may have outpaced near-term fundamentals. The Memory Crash Has 4 Big Stocks Down 30% or More
• Negative Sentiment: Advances in Chinese AI technology and a strong listing by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies are fueling concerns about future competition and whether current supply constraints will persist. Stocks Extend Slide Amid China’s AI Challenge
• Negative Sentiment: Insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 808 shares for approximately $428,000 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. The sale reduced her position by only 0.7% and is therefore a limited bearish signal.

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.