Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. Invests $479,000 in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 3,667 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $479,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. SYM FINANCIAL Corp acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at $225,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 9.6% in the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 30,434 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,938,000 after acquiring an additional 2,656 shares in the last quarter. Parsifal Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 32.0% during the first quarter. Parsifal Capital Management LP now owns 897,574 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,289,000 after acquiring an additional 217,574 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $233,000. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Western Digital by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 118,888 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,594,000 after purchasing an additional 7,913 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $179.74 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.45 billion, a PE ratio of 26.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $157.19 and a 200-day moving average of $108.74. Western Digital Corporation has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $188.77.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total transaction of $3,013,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 645,467 shares in the company, valued at $97,265,422.23. The trade was a 3.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $596,524.46. This represents a 31.79% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Benchmark raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. China Renaissance began coverage on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 target price on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Western Digital to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Barclays increased their price target on Western Digital from $105.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One investment 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.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $173.65.

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.