Cresset Asset Management LLC Increases Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Cresset Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 94.9% in Q3, holding 8,885 shares valued at about $1.07 million as institutional investors own roughly 92.51% of the stock.
• Wall Street sentiment is positive with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a $265.58 target, while firms like Mizuho and Citigroup have raised targets to $340 and $325 respectively.
• Company insiders have been net sellers: CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares for about $5.11 million, and insiders sold 84,277 shares (~$22.09 million) over the past three months, leaving insiders with just 0.18% ownership.

Cresset Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) by 94.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,885 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,327 shares during the period. Cresset Asset Management LLC's holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,067,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of WDC. ORG Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its stake in Western Digital by 551.4% during the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on WDC. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Susquehanna reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $285.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. One investment 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 company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 84,277 shares of company stock valued at $22,091,068 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Trading Up 6.9%

NASDAQ WDC opened at $262.06 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28, a PEG ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.75. The firm's 50-day moving average is $248.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $174.53. Western Digital Corporation has a 12 month low of $28.83 and a 12 month high of $309.90.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.77 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

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.

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