Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Decreases Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. reduced its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 40.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 35,900 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 24,523 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $6,184,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Partners LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% in the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the firm’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. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC opened at $275.34 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $319.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $93.35 billion, a PE ratio of 27.62, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $272.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $193.78.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

WDC has been the topic of several recent research reports. China Renaissance started coverage on Western Digital in a research report on Friday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price objective on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Argus set a $300.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.