AlphaCore Capital LLC Acquires New Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

AlphaCore Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 2,591 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $311,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WDC. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,196,484,000 after acquiring an additional 243,177 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $593,045,000 after purchasing an additional 186,030 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP raised its holdings in Western Digital by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $354,247,000 after purchasing an additional 431,419 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 17.1% in the 2nd quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,735,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $239,022,000 after purchasing an additional 545,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Trading Down 0.9%

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $279.70 on Monday. 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 $309.90. The company has a market cap of $94.83 billion, a PE ratio of 28.05, a PEG ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $238.58 and a 200-day moving average of $166.82.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 company posted $1.77 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report 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, February 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on 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 given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 214 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.11, for a total transaction of $61,227.54. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 133,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,276,081.91. This trade represents a 0.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 67,606 shares of company stock worth $17,296,369 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.