Ritholtz Wealth Management Purchases New Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Ritholtz Wealth Management acquired a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 6,377 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $766,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in 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 period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $78,347,000 after purchasing an additional 784,645 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 338.3% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 936,313 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $59,915,000 after buying an additional 722,702 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 17.1% during the second quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,735,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $239,022,000 after buying an additional 545,500 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 144,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,217,779.72. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at approximately $97,265,422.23. The trade was a 3.01% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $221.51 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $230.48. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $176.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $125.95. The company has a market capitalization of $75.73 billion, a PE ratio of 32.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.78.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.21. Western Digital had a return on equity of 30.89% and a net margin of 21.37%.The firm had revenue of $2.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.72 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.78 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.4% on a year-over-year basis. 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 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $228.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $189.05.

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.