Ascent Group LLC Buys 3,501 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Ascent Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 135.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 6,095 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,501 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,050,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at $791,317,000. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $221,800,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $78,347,000 after buying an additional 784,645 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $311.96 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $105.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.29, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The business’s 50-day moving average is $280.07 and its 200-day moving average is $203.72. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $30.57 and a 1 year high of $319.62.

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. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The company had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its price target on WDC to $380 and moved to an “overweight” stance, giving the stock a clear analyst-driven upside catalyst. Morgan Stanley raises WDC target
• Positive Sentiment: Barron’s highlights WDC as part of the AI/data-center cohort that remains underappreciated, helping momentum and investor interest in storage names. Seagate, Western Digital Stocks Keep Rising
• Neutral Sentiment: Market recap pieces note WDC’s recent price gain and trading activity, offering context for today’s move but no new company-specific catalyst. Western Digital Surpasses Market Returns
• Neutral Sentiment: Consumer/retail coverage — e.g., a steep discount on the WD_Black Xbox expansion card and lifestyle mentions of WD-40 — creates peripheral brand visibility but is unlikely to move enterprise/data-center revenue. WD_Black discount article WD-40 lifestyle article
• Negative Sentiment: Pre-market commentary flagged that AI-related “parts” demand looked soft as higher interest rates act as a drag on sentiment for hardware suppliers, a short-term risk to momentum in storage names. AI parts looking soft premarket
• Negative Sentiment: Commentary from Barron’s and investors cautions that high-flying AI/memory/storage stocks can experience sharp pullbacks after big moves — a reminder of elevated volatility for WDC. Your Stock Just Doubled. What to Do Now.
• Negative Sentiment: High-profile commentators (e.g., Jim Cramer) emphasize the boom-and-bust nature of flash and storage segments, reinforcing near-term risk despite strong fundamentals. Jim Cramer on boom-bust

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Zacks Research lowered shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Twenty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.83.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the firm’s 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.