WT Asset Management Ltd Buys Shares of 499,300 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

WT Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 499,300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $59,946,000. Western Digital makes up 2.8% of WT Asset Management Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. WT Asset Management Ltd owned 0.15% of Western Digital as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. bought a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $302,000. Avestar Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $510,000. L & S Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 101.7% in the third quarter. L & S Advisors Inc now owns 116,345 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,968,000 after acquiring an additional 58,667 shares in the last quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Finally, Syon Capital LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 16.2% during the third quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 11,044 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,326,000 after purchasing an additional 1,540 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. One equities 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at $596,524.46. This trade represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Trading Up 1.3%

NASDAQ WDC traded up $3.69 on Friday, hitting $288.36. 2,218,325 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,461,304. The company has a market capitalization of $97.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.80. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $309.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $225.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $156.96.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued 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 during 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. Research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be given a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

About Western Digital

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.