Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund cut its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 15.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 130,650 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 23,243 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $15,686,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WDC. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 229.7% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $307,000. CWM LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 248.7% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 54,923 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,515,000 after buying an additional 39,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 17,266 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,102,000 after acquiring an additional 922 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $284.10 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $96.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.80. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $214.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $149.58. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $307.50.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. 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 payout ratio is 5.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $1,833,922.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 136,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,932,163.62. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WDC. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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. Loop Capital increased their price objective on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Benchmark increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

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.