Avestar Capital LLC Makes New $510,000 Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Avestar Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 4,245 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $510,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. ORG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its stake in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 86.9% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $1,833,922.20. Following the sale, the insider owned 136,538 shares in the company, valued at $36,932,163.62. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC opened at $285.52 on Friday. 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 has a market cap of $96.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.80. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $227.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $158.41. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $309.90.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. Research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, UBS Group set a $306.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a 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 given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital 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.