Western Digital Corporation $WDC Holdings Reduced by Primecap Management Co. CA

Primecap Management Co. CA decreased its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 965,070 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 107,020 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $115,866,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% during 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 worth about $641,000. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $636,000. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Western Digital by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 118,888 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,594,000 after buying an additional 7,913 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in Western Digital by 35.3% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 234,245 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,123,000 after buying an additional 61,166 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized an additional $4.0 billion share repurchase and flagged an AI/data-center HDD roadmap (40TB UltraSMR in customer qualification; path to 100TB+ HAMR). That buyback plus AI positioning drove the recent rally. QuiverQuant: Buyback expansion and AI-era HDD roadmap
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks added WDC to its top growth/momentum lists and published bullish commentary — reinforcing short-term investor interest and buy-side flows into WDC as an AI/data-center beneficiary. Zacks: Momentum Stock Note
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks also added WDC to its Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) growth stocks list, a spotlight that can attract momentum-focused flows. Zacks: Best Growth Stocks to Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital plans to relaunch its G-DRIVE external storage brand — a product/marketing initiative that supports consumer positioning but is not an immediate earnings catalyst. MSN: G-DRIVE Relaunch
• Neutral Sentiment: Small insider sale disclosed (Cynthia Tregillis sold ~130 shares) — immaterial size but often highlighted by media during volatile sessions. SEC Filing: Insider Sale
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that WDC is exiting most of its remaining SanDisk stake via secondary sale / exchange have raised concerns about added share supply and a focus on balance-sheet cleanup rather than buybacks — a key near-term overhang. Yahoo Finance: SanDisk stake sale and balance-sheet actions
• Negative Sentiment: Citron Research launched a short call focused on Sandisk / the NAND cycle and highlighted WDC’s SanDisk exit as a potential warning — the report can amplify downside while investors digest valuation and cycle risk. Yahoo Finance: Citron Short on Sandisk

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 67,392 shares of company stock valued at $17,235,141 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on WDC shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $285.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, February 6th. Barclays upped their target price on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Loop Capital lifted their price target on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Price Performance

NASDAQ WDC opened at $282.25 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $309.90. The company has a market cap of $95.69 billion, a PE ratio of 28.31, a PEG ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.80. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $236.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $164.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

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.