Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Purchased by Cwm LLC

Cwm LLC raised its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 49.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 82,309 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 27,386 shares during the quarter. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $9,882,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 130.0% in the first quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 5,029,359 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $203,337,000 after acquiring an additional 2,842,822 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 1st quarter worth about $50,897,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $78,347,000 after acquiring an additional 784,645 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of WDC stock opened at $181.54 on Monday. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $28.83 and a fifty-two week high of $188.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.21. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $158.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $110.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.43, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.82.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total value of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $596,524.46. This trade represents a 31.79% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785 over the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WDC. Benchmark increased their price target on Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Loop Capital increased their target price on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. China Renaissance began coverage on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $173.65.

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.