denkapparat Operations GmbH Makes New Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

denkapparat Operations GmbH bought a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 2,308 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $277,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. SYM FINANCIAL Corp bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $225,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,281,000 after purchasing an additional 5,731 shares during the period. LBP AM SA bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $641,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in Western Digital by 9.6% in 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 during the period. Finally, Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter worth $636,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $281.58 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $95.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.79. The company’s 50 day moving average is $219.16 and its 200 day moving average is $153.62. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $307.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays upped their price target on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. The trade was a 33.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following 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 position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, 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 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.