Sanctuary Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 56,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $36,151,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth about $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $885,565,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter worth approximately $350,403,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, 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 position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 24,679 shares of company stock worth $11,451,605 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC opened at $459.44 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $552.24 and a 200 day moving average of $434.46. The stock has a market cap of $158.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.98 and a beta of 2.14. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $74.57 and a 52-week high of $799.87.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The business had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.66 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 2.48%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on WDC. Wall Street Zen lowered Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, August 16th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $534.56.

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.