Laraway Financial Advisors Inc Buys New Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Laraway Financial Advisors Inc bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,350 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,140,000. Western Digital comprises about 1.3% of Laraway Financial Advisors Inc’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its position 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. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 1st quarter worth about $32,000. Swiss RE Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. BOKF NA grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 6,700.0% during the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the period. Finally, JPL Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WDC. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on Western Digital from $900.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $560.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $508.80 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $556.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $425.47. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $73.14 and a 12 month high of $799.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at $60,663,290.57. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,093 shares of company stock worth $11,650,737. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Sector rally supports WDC. SanDisk’s bullish long-term growth targets, including expectations for sustained flash-memory demand, boosted sentiment toward storage companies. Western Digital benefited from the read-through, particularly as investors anticipate continued AI infrastructure spending on HDD and NAND storage. SanDisk outlook article
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and quantitative signals improved. Zacks upgraded Western Digital to Rank #1, or “Strong Buy,” citing improving earnings prospects. WDC was also included among Zacks’ top momentum stocks, while JPMorgan reportedly raised its price target to $650. Zacks upgrade article
• Positive Sentiment: Recent results provide fundamental support. Western Digital’s latest quarter exceeded consensus estimates for both earnings and revenue, with revenue rising 43.8% year over year. Stronger pricing, high-capacity drive demand and AI-driven storage requirements are supporting expectations for continued growth. WDC sector rally article
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional positioning is mixed: JPMorgan and Capital World Investors added shares, while several large investors reduced holdings. The conflicting activity does not establish a clear institutional trend.
• Negative Sentiment: Elevated expectations remain a risk. Despite the earnings beat, WDC shares previously fell sharply because management’s guidance did not exceed demanding investor expectations. Concerns remain about moderating sequential growth, NAND pricing volatility and whether the AI-driven storage cycle has peaked. WDC earnings reaction article
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling may weigh on sentiment. CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares for approximately $8.9 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. Broader data shows substantial insider selling and no reported insider purchases during the past six months. CEO insider sale article

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.