Park Capital Management LLC WI Acquires Shares of 8,423 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Park Capital Management LLC WI bought a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 8,423 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,011,000. Western Digital makes up approximately 0.8% of Park Capital Management LLC WI’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its position in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 130.0% during the first quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 5,029,359 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $203,337,000 after acquiring an additional 2,842,822 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter worth about $50,897,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $78,347,000 after acquiring an additional 784,645 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total transaction of $3,013,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 645,467 shares in the company, valued at $97,265,422.23. This represents a 3.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 sale, the director directly owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Trading Up 0.8%

Western Digital stock opened at $179.74 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $188.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $157.19 and its 200-day moving average is $108.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.21. The company 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.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday. Bank of America increased their target price on Western Digital from $170.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $180.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.65.

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.