MQS Management LLC Acquires New Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

MQS Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,051 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $366,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Pure Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 57.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 309 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 3.0% during the third quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 3,871 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $465,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 4.2% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 2,993 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Trading Up 4.3%

Western Digital stock opened at $273.74 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $212.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $148.64. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $28.83 and a 12 month high of $296.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $92.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.77 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. New Street Research set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, UBS Group set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at approximately $552,090. The trade was a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. The trade was a 31.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.