Kovack Advisors Inc. Cuts Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Kovack Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 41.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,384 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,367 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $406,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted 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 in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 229.7% in 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 last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter valued at about $307,000. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 318.9% during the second quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 23,847 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,526,000 after buying an additional 18,154 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 3.4% in the second quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 5,895 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $377,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $285.52 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $96.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.64, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.79. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $227.88 and a 200 day moving average of $159.58. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $309.90. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter 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 year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Loop Capital increased their target price on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. New Street Research set a $250.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. China Renaissance started coverage on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, December 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $193.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. One 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.