Ethos Financial Group LLC Trims Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Ethos Financial Group LLC cut its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 42.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,790 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,059 shares during the quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $481,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $791,317,000. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth about $221,800,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in 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 worth $78,347,000 after acquiring an additional 784,645 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The stock was 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 three months, insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Trading Up 3.1%

Shares of WDC stock opened at $304.15 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $278.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $202.28. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $319.62. The firm has a market cap of $103.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.77.

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. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.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 previous year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. Barclays upped their target price on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Argus set a $300.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.83.

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.