Ethic Inc. Sells 3,611 Shares of Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Ethic Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 9.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 32,788 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,611 shares during the period. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $2,075,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,938,495 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,736,003,000 after acquiring an additional 478,728 shares during the period. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 130.0% during the first quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 5,029,359 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $203,337,000 after acquiring an additional 2,842,822 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 1.5% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,449,811 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $139,476,000 after acquiring an additional 52,140 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 107.1% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,369,331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $136,222,000 after acquiring an additional 1,742,481 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 8.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,933,278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $118,574,000 after acquiring an additional 216,387 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WDC. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $95.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday. Loop Capital upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $92.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.84.

Western Digital Stock Up 3.0%

NASDAQ WDC opened at $129.43 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $104.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.04. The company has a market capitalization of $44.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.13, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.77. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $137.40.

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 return on equity of 24.93% and a net margin of 14.13%. Equities analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 353 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.90, for a total transaction of $28,557.70. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 27,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,218,682.50. The trade was a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 14,067 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.78, for a total value of $1,051,930.26. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 135,351 shares in the company, valued at $10,121,547.78. The trade was a 9.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 49,730 shares of company stock valued at $3,921,594 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.