National Pension Service Acquires 7,586 Shares of Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC)

National Pension Service lifted its position in Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) by 0.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 862,387 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,586 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $51,424,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 32.3% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 45,131 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,691,000 after purchasing an additional 11,013 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 841,700 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $50,191,000 after buying an additional 50,188 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 390,826 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $23,305,000 after buying an additional 15,189 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 124.2% in the third quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP now owns 21,412 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,462,000 after purchasing an additional 11,860 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 53.3% in the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 99,444 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,930,000 after purchasing an additional 34,579 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on WDC. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Western Digital from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Western Digital from $100.00 to $93.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Benchmark lowered Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $70.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Western Digital from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on Western Digital from $89.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.05.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC stock opened at $48.20 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $63.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.29. Western Digital Co. has a twelve month low of $39.58 and a twelve month high of $61.16. The firm has a market cap of $16.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.48 and a beta of 1.44.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by ($0.36). Western Digital had a return on equity of 15.68% and a net margin of 9.95%. Analysts predict that Western Digital Co. will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Company 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.