Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 10,647 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. cut its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 15.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 60,423 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 10,647 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $7,254,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. CVA Family Office LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 23.7% during the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 904 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Western Digital by 47.2% during the 2nd quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 577 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 3.4% in the second quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 5,895 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $377,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Western Digital by 6.2% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 3,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $222,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the period. Finally, Private Wealth Management Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 102.5% during the second quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 399 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WDC. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Western Digital to $228.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $148.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Western Digital to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Benchmark upped their target price on shares of 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 raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $170.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $173.65.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total value of $3,013,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 645,467 shares in the company, valued at $97,265,422.23. This represents a 3.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $272,272.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. The trade was a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ WDC opened at $181.08 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $152.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $106.02. The firm has a market cap of $61.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.36, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $188.77.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter. Western Digital had a net margin of 21.37% and a return on equity of 30.89%. The business had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were issued a $0.125 dividend. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.28%.

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.