Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Purchased by Jain Global LLC

Jain Global LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 203.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 279,760 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 187,436 shares during the quarter. Jain Global LLC owned 0.08% of Western Digital worth $33,588,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in Western Digital by 124.5% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its position in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 551.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $272.29 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $255.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $179.83. The stock has a market cap of $92.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.31, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $309.90.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for 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 firm’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.77 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

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.