Rhumbline Advisers Reduces Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Rhumbline Advisers lowered its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 1.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 668,712 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 11,589 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned 0.20% of Western Digital worth $80,285,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. ORG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Westfuller Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 207.0% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $1,833,922.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 136,538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,932,163.62. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on WDC. UBS Group set a $306.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. Argus set a $300.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $284.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $96.32 billion, a PE ratio of 28.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.80. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $28.83 and a fifty-two week high of $307.50. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $214.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $149.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. Western Digital’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

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.