4,241 Shares in Western Digital Corporation $WDC Acquired by Arete Wealth Advisors LLC

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 4,241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $509,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $791,317,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth about $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $78,347,000 after purchasing an additional 784,645 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trivest Advisors Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 463.4% during the 3rd quarter. Trivest Advisors Ltd now owns 920,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $110,455,000 after purchasing an additional 756,700 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $250.61 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $84.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.14, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.76. The business has a 50 day moving average of $241.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $169.42. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $309.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced 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 business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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 given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date 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%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Argus set a $300.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 214 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.11, for a total value of $61,227.54. Following the sale, the insider owned 133,781 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,276,081.91. This trade 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 can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 64,805 shares of company stock valued at $16,846,612 in the last quarter. 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.