Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Sold by TIAA Trust National Association

TIAA Trust National Association trimmed its holdings in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 19.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,069 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,915 shares during the period. TIAA Trust National Association’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $969,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 43,282,393 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,196,484,000 after acquiring an additional 243,177 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $593,045,000 after acquiring an additional 186,030 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 8.5% during the second 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. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 17.1% in the 2nd quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,735,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $239,022,000 after purchasing an additional 545,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on WDC. China Renaissance assumed coverage on Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price objective on the stock. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC stock opened at $279.70 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $238.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $166.82. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $309.90. The stock has a market cap of $94.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.05, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total value of $1,833,922.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 136,538 shares in the company, valued at $36,932,163.62. The trade was a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 67,606 shares of company stock worth $17,296,369 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.