Carnegie Investment Counsel Buys New Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Carnegie Investment Counsel bought a new stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $358,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Forum Financial Management LP raised its holdings in Western Digital by 3.4% in the second quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 5,895 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $377,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 178.3% in the second quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 668 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 318.9% in the second quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 23,847 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,526,000 after acquiring an additional 18,154 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in Western Digital by 2.3% in the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 240,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $15,234,000 after acquiring an additional 5,405 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cidel Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $224,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 3,160 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.68, for a total value of $239,148.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 31,560 shares in the company, valued at $2,388,460.80. This trade represents a 9.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 11,343 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.29, for a total transaction of $1,024,159.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 151,596 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,687,602.84. This trade represents a 6.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 49,730 shares of company stock valued at $3,921,594. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $129.43 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market cap of $44.37 billion, a PE ratio of 25.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.77. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $104.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.30. Western Digital Corporation has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $137.40.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter. Western Digital had a net margin of 14.13% and a return on equity of 24.93%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.77%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. Benchmark raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $85.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $92.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Western Digital to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $80.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $109.84.

Western Digital Profile

Western Digital Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells data storage devices and solutions in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, rest of Asia, and internationally. It offers client devices, including hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) for desktop and notebook personal computers (PCs), gaming consoles, and set top boxes; and flash-based embedded storage products for mobile phones, tablets, notebook PCs, and other portable and wearable devices, as well as automotive, Internet of Things, industrial, and connected home applications.