OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Makes New Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd purchased a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,899 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,104,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Western Digital by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its holdings in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital by 70.4% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $512,107,000 after buying an additional 1,228,661 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,809,409 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $483,977,000 after buying an additional 159,167 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $469.05 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $161.67 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 2.14. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $554.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $433.12. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $74.42 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The company’s revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.66 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Summit Insights lowered shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Susquehanna increased their target price on Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Wall Street Zen cut Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. Bank of America lifted their price target on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Two investment 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 MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.56.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,366,060.96. This trade represents a 2.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 24,679 shares of company stock valued at $11,451,605. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.