Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. Raises Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. raised its stake by 399.8% in Western Digital during Q3, acquiring an additional 25,987 shares to hold 32,487 shares worth about $3.9 million.
• Western Digital beat quarterly expectations with EPS $2.13 vs. $1.93 and revenue $3.02B (up 25.2% YoY), driving the stock up roughly 9.6% toward its 52‑week high.
• Multiple analysts raised targets and ratings (e.g., Cantor Fitzgerald $325, Mizuho $340), even as insiders sold about 92,795 shares (~$24.3M) over the past 90 days; the company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.125 ($0.50 annual).

Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. raised its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 399.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 32,487 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 25,987 shares during the quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P.'s holdings in Western Digital were worth $3,900,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 acquiring an additional 243,177 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP increased its holdings in Western Digital by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 5,535,972 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $354,247,000 after purchasing an additional 431,419 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Western Digital by 11.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Western Digital by 11.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 402,981 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Stock Up 9.6%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $313.81 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $314.92. The company has a market capitalization of $106.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.48, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.75. The company has a 50 day moving average of $259.09 and a 200 day moving average of $182.91.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company's stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 8,518 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.32, for a total transaction of $2,174,815.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 99,276 shares in the company, valued at $25,347,148.32. This represents a 7.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on WDC. UBS Group set a $306.00 price objective on Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 30th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Argus set a $300.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of 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 given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $265.58.

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.

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