9,636 Shares in Western Digital Corporation $WDC Bought by Impax Asset Management Group plc

Impax Asset Management Group plc acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 9,636 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,157,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 102.5% in the 2nd quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 399 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 86.9% in the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% in the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 31st. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, 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. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the director owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at $596,524.46. This trade represents a 31.79% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

NASDAQ WDC opened at $273.74 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market cap of $92.81 billion, a PE ratio of 27.46, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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 given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

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.