Cresset Asset Management LLC Increases Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 94.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,885 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,327 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,067,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 3,019 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Western Digital by 229.7% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $307,000. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $286,000. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $231,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Argus set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 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 issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $265.58.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the sale, the insider owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,137,796.14. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 84,277 shares of company stock valued at $22,091,068 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock opened at $262.06 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $248.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $174.53. The stock has a market cap of $88.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.28, a PEG ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.75. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $28.83 and a fifty-two 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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 dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

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.