Kieckhefer Group LLC Purchases Shares of 6,000 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 6,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $720,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. waypoint wealth counsel acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at $301,000. Pure Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 3.1% in the third quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $430,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. Retireful LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $1,030,000. Ethic Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 6.8% in the third quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 35,027 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,205,000 after buying an additional 2,239 shares during the period. Finally, Institute for Wealth Management LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $320,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 31st. TD Cowen raised their target price on Western Digital from $90.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $180.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Friday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $173.65.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $179.68 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.21. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $188.77. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $159.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $111.23. The firm has a market cap of $61.43 billion, a PE ratio of 26.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.82.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend 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 currently 7.28%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total value of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,524.46. The trade was a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.