Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Sells 34,589 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 77.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 10,314 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 34,589 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,777,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 12.3% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,281,000 after purchasing an additional 5,731 shares during the period. LBP AM SA acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $641,000. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $34,244,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 399.8% in the third quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,900,000 after purchasing an additional 25,987 shares during the period. Finally, NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 75.4% in the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,778,000 after purchasing an additional 4,068 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a 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 Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total transaction of $2,743,105.88. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 53,655 shares of company stock valued at $18,179,038. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Argus set a $300.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird raised 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. Citigroup upped their price target on Western Digital from $405.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $413.50.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Shares are benefiting from a strong sector-wide “memory melt-up,” with AI infrastructure demand supporting higher pricing power and improving earnings expectations for storage makers like Western Digital. Not Just Micron: Memory Melt-Up Pulls SanDisk Up 8%, Western Digital Up 10%
• Positive Sentiment: Evercore reportedly raised its price target on Western Digital to $575, calling the stock “underappreciated” as hard disk drives remain critical for AI data-center buildouts. Hard Disk Drives Are Critical for AI but Western Digital Stock Is Still Underappreciated Here
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage highlights Western Digital as a key beneficiary of the AI memory/storage supercycle, with investors searching the name more heavily after strong momentum in peers like Micron and SanDisk. Micron’s $1 Trillion Memory Melt-Up
• Neutral Sentiment: An insider sale by Cynthia L. Tregillis was disclosed, but it was small relative to her holdings and was made under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plan, so it is unlikely to be a major negative signal for investors. SEC filing
• Neutral Sentiment: Another insider sale was also reported the same day, adding to activity that may look cautious, but the transactions appear routine rather than clearly bearish. SEC filing

Western Digital Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $530.60 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $387.41 and its 200 day moving average is $276.68. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $51.17 and a 52 week high of $546.68. The stock has a market cap of $182.89 billion, a PE ratio of 31.68 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.99%.

About Western Digital

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.