Alps Advisors Inc. Buys New Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Alps Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 4,670 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $561,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WDC. SYM FINANCIAL Corp acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $225,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $6,281,000 after acquiring an additional 5,731 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $641,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $1,938,000 after acquiring an additional 2,656 shares during the period. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted 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 acquiring an additional 7,913 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $284.10 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $96.32 billion, a PE ratio of 28.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $307.50. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $214.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $149.58.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $3.02 billion for 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Benchmark lifted their target price on Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $1,833,922.20. Following the sale, the insider owned 136,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,932,163.62. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.