Sienna Gestion Takes Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Sienna Gestion bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 85,981 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,412,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its stake in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted 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 buying an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Trading Down 5.3%

WDC opened at $245.25 on Monday. 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 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $309.90. The business’s 50 day moving average is $246.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.21. The firm has a market cap of $83.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.76.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 21st. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Loop Capital upped their target price on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research 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 given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 84,277 shares of company stock valued at $22,091,068. 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.