OFI Invest Asset Management Makes New $532,000 Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 4,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $532,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 142.0% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 9,008 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,082,000 after buying an additional 5,285 shares during the last quarter. Kaufman Rossin Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $292,000. Northwest Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $208,000. TTP Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $4,266,000. Finally, Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $274,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $178.25 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $60.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.82. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $188.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $154.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $107.74.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter. Western Digital had a net margin of 21.37% and a return on equity of 30.89%. Research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.28%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on WDC. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $90.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $90.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $150.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $105.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.65.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the transaction, the insider owned 144,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,217,779.72. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total value of $3,013,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 645,467 shares in the company, valued at $97,265,422.23. This trade represents a 3.01% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.