Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by Bahl & Gaynor Inc.

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lowered its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 5.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 462,850 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 28,281 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. owned approximately 0.14% of Western Digital worth $55,570,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of WDC. 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. 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. Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 207.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on WDC shares. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. UBS Group set a $306.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total value of $1,833,922.20. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 136,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,932,163.62. The trade was a 4.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 67,606 shares of company stock valued at $17,296,369. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $279.70 on Monday. 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. The stock 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. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $238.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $166.82.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.02%.

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.