Mediolanum International Funds Ltd Purchases New Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Mediolanum International Funds Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 63,123 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,369,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $78,347,000 after acquiring an additional 784,645 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 338.3% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 936,313 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $59,915,000 after acquiring an additional 722,702 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 17.1% in the 2nd quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,735,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $239,022,000 after purchasing an additional 545,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $165.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Benchmark upped their price objective on Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $253.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $552,090. The trade was a 33.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the sale, the insider owned 144,596 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,217,779.72. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 6,816 shares of company stock valued at $1,102,348. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $270.26 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $195.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $139.03. The firm has a market cap of $92.40 billion, a PE ratio of 27.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $285.42.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. Western Digital’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis 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 currently 5.02%.

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.