IFM Investors Pty Ltd Buys 7,518 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 70,651 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,518 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $8,482,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 384.9% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 18,116 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,175,000 after buying an additional 14,380 shares in the last quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $340,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $532,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 142.0% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 9,008 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,082,000 after purchasing an additional 5,285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kaufman Rossin Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth approximately $292,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WDC. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Mizuho set a $180.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Western Digital from $125.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $173.65.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 144,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,217,779.72. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Trading Up 0.8%

WDC stock opened at $179.74 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $188.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The firm has a market cap of $61.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.16, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.82. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $157.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $108.74.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter. Western Digital had a return on equity of 30.89% and a net margin of 21.37%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 7.28%.

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.