Ceredex Value Advisors LLC Acquires 106,889 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Ceredex Value Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 22.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 574,989 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 106,889 shares during the quarter. Western Digital accounts for 1.6% of Ceredex Value Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $69,033,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its position in Western Digital by 551.4% in the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WDC. Barclays boosted their price target 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. UBS Group set a $306.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Loop Capital raised their target price on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Price Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $262.06 on Tuesday. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $309.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $248.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.53. The firm has a market cap of $88.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.75.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 7.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the sale, the insider 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 84,277 shares of company stock valued at $22,091,068. Company 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.