Cerity Partners LLC Grows Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 20.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 154,830 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,458 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $18,589,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $593,045,000 after buying an additional 186,030 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP increased its holdings in Western Digital by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $354,247,000 after acquiring an additional 431,419 shares during the last quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 17.1% in the 2nd quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,735,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $239,022,000 after purchasing an additional 545,500 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $220,680,000. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on WDC shares. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Western Digital from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Benchmark increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $177.50.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Intraday institutional order‑flow bullish signal (Power Inflow) triggered near $187.86, drawing buying interest and helping reverse an early pullback. Western Digital Shares Rise 5% After Key Trading Signal
• Positive Sentiment: Higher‑capacity HDDs and hyperscaler demand are cited as the main drivers of revenue growth and outlook improvement, supporting the firm’s core enterprise storage business and margins. Higher Capacity HDDs Drive Western Digital’s Revenue Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Momentum: coverage notes WDC has risen more than 9% YTD and enjoyed very strong gains in 2025, which can attract momentum and growth‑oriented flows. Western Digital Corporation (WDC) Has Risen More Than 9% Since the Start of 2026
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/earnings setup: previews point to double‑digit EPS growth expectations ahead of Western Digital’s Q2 report, which reinforces the fundamental case for the rally. Western Digital Earnings Preview: What to Expect
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusually high options volume indicates elevated short‑term interest and positioning; could amplify intraday moves but is ambiguous on direction unless one can see call/put skew. Western Digital Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:WDC)
• Neutral Sentiment: Consumer SSD branding updates (WD Black/Blue → SanDisk Optimus collection) are product‑level news that support retail visibility but are unlikely to materially change near‑term enterprise revenue. WD Black and WD Blue gaming SSDs have transformed into the Sandisk Optimus Collection
• Negative Sentiment: Sector froth/risk: commentary on memory and chip stocks running hot raises the risk of an overheated trade and mean‑reversion if macro or AI demand narratives slow. That poses short‑term downside if momentum reverses. Memory Chip Stocks are Red-Hot. Is it Too Late to Buy?

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total transaction of $3,013,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 645,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,265,422.23. The trade was a 3.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. The trade was a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Western Digital Trading Up 6.8%

Shares of WDC opened at $200.46 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $169.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $118.67. The company has a market cap of $68.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $221.23.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter. Western Digital had a net margin of 21.37% and a return on equity of 30.89%. Western Digital has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 1.730-2.030 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 4th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.28%.

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.