CMC Financial Group Acquires New Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

CMC Financial Group acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 2,369 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $408,000. Western Digital comprises approximately 0.7% of CMC Financial Group’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Western Digital by 0.6% during the third 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 in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at approximately $791,317,000. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Western Digital by 11.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew 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 valued at $456,737,000 after acquiring an additional 402,981 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on WDC. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $380.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. 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, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $288.33.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock opened at $365.00 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $35.00 and a one year high of $366.30. The stock has a market cap of $123.75 billion, a PE ratio of 36.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.77. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $289.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $213.17.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the business’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 transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.