Czech National Bank Acquires 8,441 Shares of Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC)

Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) by 12.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 74,957 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,441 shares during the quarter. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $4,470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter worth approximately $95,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 274,976 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $20,835,000 after buying an additional 6,148 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth $214,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Western Digital by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,881,847 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $218,400,000 after buying an additional 143,074 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth $1,197,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, CEO David Goeckeler sold 75,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.58, for a total value of $5,443,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 821,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,633,905.40. The trade was a 8.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 658 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.99, for a total transaction of $46,053.42. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,020,121.37. This represents a 2.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 109,107 shares of company stock worth $7,768,381 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their price target on Western Digital from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. BNP Paribas dropped their price target on Western Digital from $95.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Western Digital from $81.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $75.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Benchmark cut shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.86.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC stock opened at $64.63 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.50. Western Digital Co. has a one year low of $50.88 and a one year high of $81.55. The firm has a market cap of $22.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.02 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.23. Western Digital had a net margin of 4.81% and a return on equity of 8.57%. The company had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($1.97) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 48.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Western Digital Co. will post 6.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Western Digital

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.