Connective Portfolio Management LLC Acquires Shares of 5,000 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Connective Portfolio Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 5,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $861,000. Western Digital comprises about 1.6% of Connective Portfolio Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Western Digital by 229.7% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $307,000. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 48.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 45,112 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,887,000 after buying an additional 14,809 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MAI Capital Management grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 204.7% in the 2nd quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 4,759 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $305,000 after buying an additional 3,197 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on WDC. Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 21st. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock opened at $296.14 on Thursday. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average price of $270.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $191.25. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $319.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.70, a PEG ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.76.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: WDC is benefiting from a surge in AI and cloud demand that is lifting shipments of high‑capacity drives and advancing next‑generation storage for hyperscale customers, underpinning near‑term revenue growth. Western Digital Riding on AI & Cloud Boom to Power Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Management has secured multi‑year purchase commitments for high‑capacity storage extending into 2027–2028, improving revenue visibility and supply planning for AI/hyperscale customers — a valuation positive. Western Digital (WDC) Increases Despite Market Slip: Here’s What You Need to Know
• Positive Sentiment: Industry commentary continues to favor memory/storage stocks as beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure cycle, supporting momentum in WDC shares. Why Memory Stocks Are Winning the AI Boom While Big Tech Struggles
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparisons with peers: analyses show Micron posting record revenue while WDC’s cloud sales jumped ~31% — useful for relative valuation but not an immediate price driver. Micron (MU) vs Western Digital (WDC): Which AI Infrastructure Stock Offers Better Value?
• Neutral Sentiment: Retail promotions on WD consumer SSDs/hard drives are visible but have limited impact on enterprise/hyperscale revenue trends. Western Digital WD Red SA500 NAS 3D SSD drops to $898.99
• Negative Sentiment: Google’s new TurboQuant compression algorithm prompted a pullback in memory/storage stocks today because it could lower memory requirements for AI models, potentially reducing near‑term demand for capacity expansion. That headline is the main near‑term negative pressure on WDC. MU, WDC, SNDK fall: Why Google’s TurboQuant is rattling memory stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Broader coverage highlights a shift toward algorithmic efficiency that could temper growth assumptions for memory and storage demand, creating near‑term uncertainty for chip and storage suppliers. This Google Shift Is Raising Questions For Chip Makers

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.