Vontobel Holding Ltd. Reduces Stock Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Vontobel Holding Ltd. decreased its holdings in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 54.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,763 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 5,663 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $572,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 3,871 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $465,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the period. CVA Family Office LLC boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 23.7% during the 2nd quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 904 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 47.2% in the 2nd quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 577 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 3.4% during the second quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 5,895 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $377,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 6.2% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 3,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total value of $3,013,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly 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. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total transaction of $449,756.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 144,596 shares in the company, valued at $23,217,779.72. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 26,369 shares of company stock worth $4,013,785. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $135.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital to $228.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Western Digital from $105.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.65.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $181.54 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $158.30 and its 200 day moving average is $110.36. 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 Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.83 and a 1-year high of $188.77. The company has a market cap of $62.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.43, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.82.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 7th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 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. Research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 7.28%.

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.