Andra AP fonden Increases Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Andra AP fonden raised its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 136.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 275,646 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 159,056 shares during the quarter. Andra AP fonden owned approximately 0.08% of Western Digital worth $33,094,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $6,281,000 after acquiring an additional 5,731 shares during the period. LBP AM SA purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter worth $641,000. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter worth $636,000. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 7.1% in the second quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 118,888 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,594,000 after purchasing an additional 7,913 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in Western Digital by 35.3% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 234,245 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,123,000 after buying an additional 61,166 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value 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 position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 67,392 shares of company stock worth $17,235,141 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WDC. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 16th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC opened at $282.25 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $236.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $164.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock 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. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $309.90.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 presently 5.02%.

Western Digital News Summary

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

Western Digital 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.