Burney Co. Makes New $251,000 Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Burney Co. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,457 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $251,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. 44 Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 0.8% during the third quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,329 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,120,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 7.1% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 41.5% in the fourth quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 293 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 47.8% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pure Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 3.1% in the third quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $430,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of WDC opened at $365.00 on Thursday. 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 12-month low of $35.00 and a 12-month high of $366.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $289.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $213.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $123.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.77.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Argus set a $300.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. UBS Group set a $306.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Twenty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.33.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 8,518 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.32, for a total transaction of $2,174,815.76. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 99,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,347,148.32. This trade represents a 7.90% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.