Inspire Investing LLC Has $1.54 Million Stock Holdings in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Inspire Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 186.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,785 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,314 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,535,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WDC. Grove Bank & Trust acquired a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter worth $30,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 102.5% during 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 in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 86.9% in the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CNB Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $37,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the completion of 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. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 645,467 shares in the company, valued at $97,265,422.23. This trade represents a 3.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 26,369 shares of company stock valued at $4,013,785. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Western Digital from $105.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. UBS Group upped their price objective on Western Digital from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Mizuho set a $180.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $90.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $180.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note 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 given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $173.65.

Western Digital Trading Up 0.8%

WDC stock opened at $179.74 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a one year low of $28.83 and a one year high of $188.77. The stock has a market cap of $61.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $157.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $108.74. 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 (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its 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 company had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter. Equities 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 paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 4th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 7.28%.

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.