West Michigan Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Key Points

• West Michigan Advisors bought a new position of 3,715 shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter, valued at about $640,000.
• Insiders have sold 92,711 shares worth roughly $24.3 million in the past 90 days, leaving insiders with just 0.18% ownership while institutional investors hold about 92.51%.
• Analysts are broadly positive with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $310.79, and several firms recently raised targets as high as $400–$405.

West Michigan Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 3,715 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $640,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Avion Wealth lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 163.8% during the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 113 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd 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 period. Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 207.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 178 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 363 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $377.09, for a total value of $136,883.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 120,023 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,259,473.07. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 8,518 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider directly owned 99,276 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $25,347,148.32. This trade represents a 7.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 92,711 shares of company stock valued at $24,300,404. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock opened at $403.12 on Friday. The firm has a market cap 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 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 12-month low of $38.19 and a 12-month high of $416.37. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $302.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $223.18.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 8.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on WDC shares. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $405.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. New Street Research set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $310.79.

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.

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