Pinkerton Wealth LLC Invests $5.04 Million in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• Pinkerton Wealth purchased a new stake of 42,002 shares in Western Digital in Q3, valued at approximately $5.04 million.
• Wall Street is broadly bullish—MarketBeat shows a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” with an average price target of $265.58, and several firms have recently raised targets into the $257–$340 range.
• Insiders sold 84,277 shares worth about $22.09 million in the last quarter while institutional investors own roughly 92.51% of the stock and corporate insiders hold just 0.18%.

Pinkerton Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 42,002 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,043,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Western Digital by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $154,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 3.1% in the third quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,583 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $430,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 57.7% in the third quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 309 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 3.0% in the third quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 3,871 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $465,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the period. Finally, ORG Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities restated a "buy" rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. China Renaissance began coverage on Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They set a "buy" rating and a $193.00 target price on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Bank of America increased their price target on Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their position. 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 firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider owned 107,794 shares of the company's stock, valued at $29,137,796.14. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 84,277 shares of company stock valued at $22,091,068. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $262.06 on Tuesday. 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 twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $309.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.75. The company has a 50 day moving average of $248.03 and a 200-day moving average of $174.53.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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