Diversified Trust Co. Invests $837,000 in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Diversified Trust Co. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 4,859 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $837,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 59.7% during the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $106,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 75.4% during the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,778,000 after buying an additional 4,068 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its position in Western Digital by 39.6% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 3,035 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $523,000 after buying an additional 861 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Western Digital by 42.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 98,062 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $17,063,000 after buying an additional 29,060 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cooper Financial Group acquired a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth $282,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 8,518 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.32, for a total value of $2,174,815.76. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 99,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,347,148.32. The trade was a 7.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. 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 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $275.34 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $319.62. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $272.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $193.09. The company has a market capitalization of $93.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.62, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.76. 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 (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The company’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Cloud growth and margin upside highlighted as a key thesis for WDC’s next leg of revenue and margin expansion. Western Digital: Cloud Key Driver To Growth And Margins
• Positive Sentiment: Technical market action: a recent trading signal coincided with a rebound in WDC shares, supporting near-term momentum. Western Digital Shares Rebound, Climb 3% After Key Trading Signal
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst comparisons favor WDC over peers like NetApp on AI-driven storage demand and cash returns, reinforcing buy-case narratives. Western Digital vs. NetApp: Which Data Storage Stock is the Better Buy?
• Positive Sentiment: WD is part of an open-source quantum error correction collaboration (OQD + QuScript), signaling R&D breadth that may support longer-term enterprise opportunities. OQD Launches Open-Source Collaboration with WD and QuScript to Advance Quantum Error Correction
• Neutral Sentiment: Retail promotions and deep discounts on WD-branded SSDs/HDDs (Amazon/Best Buy sales) could boost volume but also reflect aggressive consumer pricing. Upgrade your NAS storage with this WD 2TB SSD – now $240 off during Amazon’s Spring Sale
• Negative Sentiment: Google’s new TurboQuant algorithm has raised investor concerns that AI models could require materially less memory, potentially reducing hardware demand long-term. Google Just Unveiled TurboQuant: Should You Sell Sandisk Stock Now?
• Negative Sentiment: Sector reaction and a Micron selloff reflect investor skepticism about how sustainable AI-driven memory demand will be if efficiency improvements proliferate. Micron Drop Raises A Bigger AI Question
• Negative Sentiment: Broader market and interest-rate concerns are pressuring computer and memory stocks generally, tempering upside for WDC despite company-level positives. SNDK, WDC and STX Forecasts – Computer Companies Fall with Everything Else

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

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.