Western Digital Corporation $WDC Shares Purchased by State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its position in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 122,115 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,000 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $14,661,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,305,289 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $593,045,000 after acquiring an additional 186,030 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $791,317,000. Holocene Advisors LP lifted its position in Western Digital by 8.5% in 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 period. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $220,680,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America raised their price target on Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Loop Capital raised their target price on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WDC opened at $281.58 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $95.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $219.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $153.62. Western Digital Corporation has a twelve month low of $28.83 and a twelve month high of $307.50.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share 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 period last year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,524.46. This trade represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.