ProShare Advisors LLC Sells 5,988 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

ProShare Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 90,702 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 5,988 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $10,890,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. SYM FINANCIAL Corp bought a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $225,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,281,000 after acquiring an additional 5,731 shares during the period. LBP AM SA acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth $641,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Western Digital by 9.6% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 30,434 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,938,000 after acquiring an additional 2,656 shares during the period. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Western Digital by 7.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 7,913 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on WDC shares. Argus set a $300.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. China Renaissance assumed coverage on Western Digital in a research report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 target price on the stock. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group set a $306.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. One 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $273.74 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.81 billion, a PE ratio of 27.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.80. 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 Corporation has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $296.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $212.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $148.64.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.