National Pension Service Grows Stock Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

National Pension Service boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 29.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 460,182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 105,834 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned 0.13% of Western Digital worth $55,249,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AlphaQuest LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 206.4% in the third quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 429 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.0% during the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 103,013 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $12,368,000 after purchasing an additional 1,988 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $960,000. Hollencrest Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 93.4% in the third quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 1,984 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $238,000 after purchasing an additional 958 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AE Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $316,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Q2 results beat and upbeat guidance — WDC reported $2.13 EPS vs. ~$1.93 consensus and revenue of $3.02B (+25% Y/Y); management guided Q3 well above Street estimates, citing strong demand from AI/data center customers. Western Digital Reports Fiscal Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts turn more bullish — several firms upped ratings/targets (Wells Fargo $335, Wedbush $325, TD Cowen to $325, Morgan Stanley, Citi maintain/raise Buy calls), reflecting expectations for sustained AI-led capacity demand and margin upside. Analyst Coverage & Price Target Changes
• Positive Sentiment: Management and CEO comments highlight AI-driven storage growth — CEO Irving Tan emphasized that AI inference is generating more data and requiring more storage, supporting ongoing demand for high‑capacity HDDs and flash. Western Digital CEO: AI inference is generating more data and requiring storage hence demand growth
• Positive Sentiment: Company to outline AI storage roadmap at Feb. 3 Innovation Day — investors have an upcoming event to get product/roadmap detail, which could provide further visibility on TAM and upside. Dear Western Digital Stock Fans, Mark Your Calendars for February 3
• Neutral Sentiment: Small quarterly dividend declared — WDC announced a $0.125 per‑share dividend (ex‑dividend Mar 5), a token yield that is unlikely to materially move the stock but may be noted by income investors.
• Negative Sentiment: Shares gave back gains after the initial rally — despite the beat and strong guide, intraday profit‑taking and repositioning pushed the stock down on elevated volume, suggesting some investors are booking gains after a rapid run. Western Digital Shares Give Up Gains After Earnings Beat, Strong Guidance
• Negative Sentiment: Technical/positioning risks — some analysts and market pieces noted WDC was overbought ahead of results; after a big run to an all‑time high, elevated expectations increase the risk of short‑term pullbacks. Overbought Ahead of Earnings

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $250.23 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market cap of $85.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.79. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $193.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $137.60. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $285.42.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.77 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on WDC. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Mizuho set a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Benchmark lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $244.95.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 144,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,217,779.72. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 6,816 shares of company stock worth $1,102,348. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.