Patton Fund Management Inc. Purchases New Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Patton Fund Management Inc. acquired a new position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 2,830 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $340,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Private Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 102.5% in the 2nd quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 399 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital by 86.9% in the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 47.2% during the 2nd quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 577 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total value of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,585 shares in the company, valued at $552,090. This trade represents a 33.03% 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, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total value of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. This represents a 31.79% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Trading Down 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:WDC opened at $176.76 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $153.63 and its 200 day moving average is $106.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Western Digital Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.83 and a 1 year high of $188.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $60.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.82.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Western Digital had a net margin of 21.37% and a return on equity of 30.89%. The business had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter. On average, research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.28%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WDC. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $125.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. UBS Group upped their target price on Western Digital from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Wedbush increased their target price on Western Digital from $90.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Western Digital from $90.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $173.65.

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.