Public Sector Pension Investment Board Raises Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 777.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 293,240 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 259,820 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board owned approximately 0.09% of Western Digital worth $35,206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 2.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $593,045,000 after acquiring an additional 186,030 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $354,247,000 after purchasing an additional 431,419 shares in the last quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 17.1% during the 2nd quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,735,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $239,022,000 after purchasing an additional 545,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $220,680,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 136,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,932,163.62. The trade was a 4.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total value of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ WDC opened at $284.10 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $214.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $149.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $307.50. The company has a market capitalization of $96.32 billion, a PE ratio of 28.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.80.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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 paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

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.