Western Digital Corporation $WDC Stake Lifted by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 48.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 817,063 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 265,654 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.24% of Western Digital worth $98,098,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WDC. Mutual Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth about $203,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Western Digital by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 3,747 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $450,000 after purchasing an additional 282 shares during the last quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $349,000. Independent Advisor Alliance acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $382,000. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $490,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction 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 represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 447 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.00, for a total value of $102,363.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 143,318 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,819,822. This trade represents a 0.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 6,816 shares of company stock worth $1,102,348. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WDC. Bank of America increased their price objective on Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Benchmark increased their price target on Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on Western Digital from $165.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $253.29.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $270.26 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $195.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $139.03. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $285.42. The stock has a market cap of $92.40 billion, a PE ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.78.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.77 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio 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.