Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Invests $509,000 in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 4,241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $509,000.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its stake in Western Digital by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 206,873 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,837,000 after buying an additional 2,700 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 15.2% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 2,292 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $275,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $3,466,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $134,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in Western Digital by 15.4% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 99,800 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $11,982,000 after purchasing an additional 13,300 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

NASDAQ WDC opened at $250.61 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $309.90. The company has a market cap of $84.97 billion, a PE ratio of 25.14, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.76. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $241.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $169.42.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict 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 paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Argus set a $300.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. UBS Group set a $306.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. One 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 214 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.11, for a total value of $61,227.54. Following the transaction, the insider owned 133,781 shares in the company, valued at $38,276,081.91. This represents a 0.16% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 64,805 shares of company stock worth $16,846,612 over the last quarter. Corporate 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.