Brookstone Capital Management Purchases Shares of 113,089 Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Brookstone Capital Management acquired a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 113,089 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $13,577,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WDC. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 228,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,467,000 after purchasing an additional 2,819 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at $369,000. IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 11.9% in the third quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 70,651 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $8,482,000 after acquiring an additional 7,518 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 384.9% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 18,116 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,175,000 after acquiring an additional 14,380 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Patton Fund Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at about $340,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,524.46. This represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. China Renaissance began coverage on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $170.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on Western Digital from $125.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $173.65.

Western Digital Stock Up 0.8%

WDC stock opened at $179.74 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $188.77. The firm has a market cap of $61.45 billion, a PE ratio of 26.16, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.82. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $157.19 and its 200-day moving average price 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.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 7.28%.

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.