Tredje AP fonden Buys 11,848 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Tredje AP fonden grew its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 46.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 37,110 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,848 shares during the quarter. Tredje AP fonden’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $4,455,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth $791,317,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth about $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its stake 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 valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $78,347,000 after purchasing an additional 784,645 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 338.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 722,702 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ WDC opened at $285.52 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market cap of $96.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.64, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.80. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $309.90. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $227.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $158.98.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.