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

WT Asset Management Ltd bought a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 499,300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $59,946,000. Western Digital accounts for 2.8% of WT Asset Management Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in WDC. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in Western Digital by 7.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 3,019 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 229.7% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $307,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 17,266 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,102,000 after buying an additional 922 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 9.6% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 30,434 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,938,000 after purchasing an additional 2,656 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC traded up $3.69 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $288.36. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,218,325 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,461,304. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $309.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.80. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $225.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $156.96.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Loop Capital boosted their target price on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In related news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total value of $277,956.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $596,524.46. The trade was a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the director directly owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Profile

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.