LSV Asset Management Purchases 137,112 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

LSV Asset Management increased its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 10.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,511,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 137,112 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $181,436,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WDC. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth $791,317,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth about $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 175.4% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in Western Digital by 338.3% in the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 936,313 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $59,915,000 after acquiring an additional 722,702 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on WDC. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday. Loop Capital lifted their target price on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Barclays increased their price target on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $273.74 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market cap of $92.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.46, a P/E/G 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 firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $212.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $148.64.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during 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%. The company’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total value of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,524.46. This trade represents a 31.79% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.