2,968 Shares in Western Digital Corporation $WDC Bought by HUB Investment Partners LLC

HUB Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,968 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $356,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 5,731 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $641,000. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth approximately $34,244,000. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth approximately $636,000. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 35.3% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 234,245 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,123,000 after purchasing an additional 61,166 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total transaction of $2,743,105.88. Following the sale, the insider owned 107,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 84,277 shares of company stock worth $22,091,068. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Stock Up 6.9%

WDC stock opened at $262.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $88.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.75. 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $248.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $174.53. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $309.90.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.77 EPS. Analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors 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 is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.02%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. New Street Research set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Truist Financial set a $310.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.