State Treasurer State of Michigan increased its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 1.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,749 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,100 shares during the period. State Treasurer State of Michigan’s holdings in Western Digital Corporation were worth $8,483,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Iridian Asset Management LLC CT boosted its stake in Western Digital Corporation by 244.0% in the first quarter. Iridian Asset Management LLC CT now owns 5,541,511 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $457,341,000 after buying an additional 3,930,465 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Western Digital Corporation by 4.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,741,455 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,372,032,000 after buying an additional 1,250,528 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in Western Digital Corporation by 179.3% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,619,954 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $133,695,000 after buying an additional 1,040,028 shares in the last quarter. Villere ST Denis J & Co. LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital Corporation during the first quarter valued at about $84,484,000. Finally, UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. boosted its stake in Western Digital Corporation by 52.2% in the first quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 2,393,005 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $197,495,000 after buying an additional 821,155 shares in the last quarter. 82.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ WDC) opened at 80.97 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.43 and a beta of 1.22. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $43.09 and a 12 month high of $95.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $90.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $84.10. Western Digital Corporation also saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders bought 6,330 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 292% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,613 call options.
Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The data storage provider reported $2.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.51 by $0.42. Western Digital Corporation had a return on equity of 21.23% and a net margin of 2.08%. The company had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.79 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 38.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post $12.54 EPS for the current year.
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.47%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 28th. Western Digital Corporation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 156.25%.
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Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Summit Redstone reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Western Digital Corporation in a research report on Saturday, July 22nd. Loop Capital assumed coverage on Western Digital Corporation in a research report on Monday, July 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $140.00 target price for the company. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Western Digital Corporation in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Western Digital Corporation in a report on Monday, July 17th. Finally, Vetr cut Western Digital Corporation from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $102.77 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, July 12th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $104.93.
In other news, EVP Michael Charles Ray sold 524 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.30, for a total value of $48,365.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jacqueline Demaria sold 14,358 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.53, for a total value of $1,213,681.74. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 75,772 shares in the company, valued at $6,405,007.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 126,966 shares of company stock worth $11,263,675. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.
About Western Digital Corporation
Western Digital Corporation (Western Digital) is a developer, manufacturer and provider of data storage devices and solutions that address the needs of the information technology (IT) industry and the infrastructure that enables the proliferation of data in virtually every industry. The Company’s portfolio of offerings addresses three categories: Datacenter Devices and Solutions (capacity and performance enterprise hard disk drives (HDDs), enterprise solid state drives (SSDs), datacenter software and system solutions); Client Devices (mobile, desktop, gaming and digital video hard drives, client SSDs, embedded products and wafers), and Client Solutions (removable products, hard drive content solutions and flash content solutions).
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