California Public Employees Retirement System Raises Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 6.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 581,862 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 35,249 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.17% of Western Digital worth $69,858,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth about $791,317,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter worth about $220,680,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its position in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 175.4% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,232,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $78,347,000 after purchasing an additional 784,645 shares during the period. Finally, Trivest Advisors Ltd raised its position in Western Digital by 463.4% during the third quarter. Trivest Advisors Ltd now owns 920,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $110,455,000 after purchasing an additional 756,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC opened at $286.21 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $257.20 and a 200 day moving average of $181.26. The stock has a market cap of $97.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.71, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.75. 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 Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $309.90.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. UBS Group set a $306.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. One equities research 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 data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. This trade represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.