Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Bought by Envestnet Asset Management Inc.

Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 178.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 580,607 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 371,829 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. owned approximately 0.17% of Western Digital worth $69,708,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth about $791,317,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter valued at approximately $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted 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 worth $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 784,645 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in Western Digital by 338.3% in the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 936,313 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $59,915,000 after buying an additional 722,702 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Board approved an incremental $4 billion share-repurchase program — a large, explicit capital-return move that supports demand for the stock and signals confidence from the board. Reuters: Western Digital adds $4 billion to buyback plan
• Positive Sentiment: Innovation Day unveiled an AI-focused storage roadmap (claims of up to 8x performance improvements and path to 100TB+ HDDs), reinforcing WDC’s positioning in AI training/data-center storage — supports longer-term demand expectations. PCWorld: WD maps out 8x performance boosts
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst community is upgrading WDC and lifting targets (several notes to Buy/Overweight and new street-high targets), which fuels short-term momentum and buy-side interest. Barchart: New street-high price target
• Positive Sentiment: Recent quarterly results beat estimates (revenue and EPS strength) and reinforce the “memory supercycle” / AI-driven storage demand thesis — supports earnings growth expectations. Zacks: WDC is up 5.85% in one week
• Neutral Sentiment: Sandisk’s dramatic rally (spun out from WDC) is lifting sentiment across the memory/storage complex — helpful for WDC thematically but also highlights increased sector volatility and comparatives. MarketBeat: Sandisk’s Swings Are Getting Bigger
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader policy moves to secure supply chains for critical minerals are supportive over the long run for domestic hardware supply, but they are not an immediate stock catalyst. MarketBeat: Critical minerals policy
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares (~$5.1M) in early February (SEC filing) — an insider sale that can prompt some near-term profit-taking despite his continued large ownership. SEC filing: Insider sale disclosure

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total value of $1,833,922.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 136,538 shares in the company, valued at $36,932,163.62. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total value of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at $596,524.46. This represents a 31.79% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Western Digital Stock Up 8.6%

NASDAQ WDC opened at $282.58 on Monday. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $28.83 and a 12 month high of $296.50. The company has a market capitalization of $95.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.34, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.80. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $205.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $144.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Loop Capital boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

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.