DNB Asset Management AS Trims Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

DNB Asset Management AS reduced its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 81.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 918,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,923,603 shares during the quarter. DNB Asset Management AS owned 0.27% of Western Digital worth $110,271,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth $791,317,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 175.4% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $78,347,000 after acquiring an additional 784,645 shares during the period. Finally, Trivest Advisors Ltd increased its stake in Western Digital by 463.4% during the third quarter. Trivest Advisors Ltd now owns 920,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $110,455,000 after purchasing an additional 756,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Key Western Digital News

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 Activity

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 308 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.70, for a total value of $86,763.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 134,759 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,961,610.30. This represents a 0.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 67,392 shares of company stock valued at $17,235,141. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $282.25 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $95.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $309.90. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $236.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $164.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm 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 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.125 per share. 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 payout ratio is 5.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. New Street Research set a $250.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, China Renaissance began coverage on Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

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.