West Family Investments Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

West Family Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 1,952 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% during 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 during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its holdings 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 valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 67,392 shares of company stock worth $17,235,141. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $282.25 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $236.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $164.14. The stock has a market cap of $95.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.31, a PEG ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $309.90.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on WDC. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Benchmark boosted their target price on Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

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.