Rakuten Securities Inc. Grows Stake in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 51.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,154 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,413 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $716,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,196,484,000 after purchasing an additional 243,177 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at $791,317,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Western Digital by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Western Digital by 11.8% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,737,000 after buying an additional 402,981 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital Trading Up 3.6%

Shares of WDC opened at $403.12 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a 1-year low of $38.19 and a 1-year high of $416.37. The company has a 50-day moving average of $302.04 and a 200 day moving average of $223.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $136.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.43, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 8.47 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 5.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $375.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Evercore upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $378.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 12th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $310.79.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 107,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 92,711 shares of company stock valued at $24,300,404. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Company 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.