Banco Santander S.A. Decreases Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Banco Santander S.A. decreased its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 82.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 2,924 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 13,942 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $351,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 3,019 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Western Digital by 229.7% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth about $307,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 78.7% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 208,778 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $13,360,000 after buying an additional 91,966 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 3.9% in the second quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 52,502 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,360,000 after buying an additional 1,961 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $279.70 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $238.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $166.82. The firm has a market cap of $94.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.05, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.75. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $309.90. 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 (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 214 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.11, for a total transaction of $61,227.54. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 133,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,276,081.91. This represents a 0.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 67,606 shares of company stock valued at $17,296,369. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on WDC. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Argus set a $300.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. 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 target price for the company. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” 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 assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

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.