Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Purchased by State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 5.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 122,115 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $14,661,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SYM FINANCIAL Corp acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth $225,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,281,000 after buying an additional 5,731 shares during the period. LBP AM SA acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $641,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 9.6% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 30,434 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,938,000 after buying an additional 2,656 shares during the period. Finally, Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $636,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total transaction of $272,272.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Down 0.9%

WDC opened at $281.58 on Tuesday. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $307.50. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $95.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.79. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $219.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $153.62.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The business’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on WDC shares. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Western Digital 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.