Vontobel Holding Ltd. Cuts Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lessened its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 54.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,763 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 5,663 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $572,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. SYM FINANCIAL Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $225,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 9.6% in the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 30,434 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,938,000 after purchasing an additional 2,656 shares during the period. Parsifal Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 32.0% during the first quarter. Parsifal Capital Management LP now owns 897,574 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,289,000 after purchasing an additional 217,574 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $233,000. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 118,888 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,594,000 after buying an additional 7,913 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total value of $3,013,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 645,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,265,422.23. The trade was a 3.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. This trade represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Loop Capital lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Mizuho set a $180.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $170.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $125.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $173.65.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock opened at $181.54 on Monday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $188.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market cap of $62.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.82. The business has a fifty day moving average of $158.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $110.36.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter. Western Digital had a return on equity of 30.89% and a net margin of 21.37%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 7.28%.

Western Digital Company 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.