Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Takes Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $58,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WDC. Forum Financial Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 5,895 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $377,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 3,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $222,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 102.5% in the 2nd quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 399 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 34.1% in the 1st quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 955 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 11.7% in the 1st quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 2,483 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $100,000 after purchasing an additional 261 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on WDC shares. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $90.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $92.00 to $99.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Benchmark upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $85.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $90.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.84.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 11,343 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.29, for a total value of $1,024,159.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 151,596 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,687,602.84. This represents a 6.96% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 8,621 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.90, for a total transaction of $654,333.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 594,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,148,052.40. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 49,730 shares of company stock worth $3,921,594 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $129.43 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $104.16 and its 200-day moving average is $73.04. The company has a market cap of $44.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.13, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.08. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $137.40.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter. Western Digital had a net margin of 14.13% and a return on equity of 24.93%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 7.77%.

Western Digital Profile

Western Digital Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells data storage devices and solutions in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, rest of Asia, and internationally. It offers client devices, including hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) for desktop and notebook personal computers (PCs), gaming consoles, and set top boxes; and flash-based embedded storage products for mobile phones, tablets, notebook PCs, and other portable and wearable devices, as well as automotive, Internet of Things, industrial, and connected home applications.