First Horizon Corp Grows Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

First Horizon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 29.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,009 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares during the period. First Horizon Corp’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,035,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $791,317,000. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $221,800,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $78,347,000 after acquiring an additional 784,645 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $372.52 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $293.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $217.26. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $35.51 and a 1 year high of $378.98. The company has a market capitalization of $126.30 billion, a PE ratio of 37.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 in the prior 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, research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 5.02%.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its WDC price target to $415 and assigned a “buy” rating, signaling increased analyst conviction and implying further upside from current levels.
• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target to $400 and moved to “overweight,” another institutional upgrade supporting the rally and likely attracting more buyer interest. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Solid fundamentals and earnings momentum — WDC has a recent track record of beats and raised guidance drivers (high-capacity/HAMR drives, manufacturing productivity). Analysts and outlets highlight the company as positioned to beat again, which supports valuation multiple expansion. Will Western Digital (WDC) Beat Estimates Again in Its Next Earnings Report?
• Positive Sentiment: WDC reported multi‑year AI storage commitments from large customers, boosted its dividend by 25% and announced meaningful buybacks — all shareholder‑friendly actions that underpin investor confidence in continued demand from AI workloads. Western Digital (WDC) Is Up 7.7% After Securing Multi‑Year AI Storage Commitments And Boosting Payouts
• Positive Sentiment: Broader market strength (Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq gains and new highs) is lifting cyclical and growth names, providing tailwinds for WDC’s share price. Dow jumps 800 points, S&P 500 at new record, Nasdaq gains 6.8% this week
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage notes WDC hitting record highs and strong institutional buying, but also documents insider selling activity — the market reaction so far shows buyers outweighing internal selling, so this is mixed for near‑term direction. Western Digital (WDC) Stock Surges to Record Peak Despite Insider Sales Activity
• Negative Sentiment: Retail SSD price cuts (example: WD Blue SN5100 markdown) could signal near‑term ASP pressure in consumer channels and tighter margins if competition forces broader discounting. WD Blue SN5100 NVMe SSD drops to $324.61 in latest price cut

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. UBS Group set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $285.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, February 6th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $304.29.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.