Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. cut its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 51.6% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 263,102 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 280,141 shares during the period. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $31,588,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. SYM FINANCIAL Corp purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter worth approximately $225,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised 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 in the last quarter. Parsifal Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 32.0% during the 1st quarter. Parsifal Capital Management LP now owns 897,574 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,289,000 after buying an additional 217,574 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $233,000. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 118,888 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,594,000 after buying an additional 7,913 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $228.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Mizuho set a $180.00 target price on Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays upped their target price on Western Digital from $105.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.65.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 144,596 shares in the company, valued at $23,217,779.72. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $181.54 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $158.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $109.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.07 billion, a PE ratio of 26.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.82. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $188.77.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a $0.125 dividend. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 7.28%.

Western Digital Company 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.