Impax Asset Management Group plc Acquires New Shares in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Impax Asset Management Group plc acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 9,636 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,157,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its position in Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 207.0% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WDC. Loop Capital raised their target price on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Barclays raised their price objective on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total value of $1,833,922.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 136,538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,932,163.62. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total value of $272,272.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $273.74 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $92.81 billion, a PE ratio of 27.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.80. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $296.50. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $212.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $148.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its 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 company had revenue of $3.02 billion for 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%. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid a $0.125 dividend. 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 (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

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.