Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Purchased by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 195,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,325 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned 0.06% of Western Digital worth $11,654,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,572,686 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $926,879,000 after buying an additional 423,651 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,921,608 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $539,355,000 after purchasing an additional 76,781 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 24.6% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,711,428 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $253,453,000 after purchasing an additional 732,344 shares during the last quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Western Digital by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 3,287,400 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $224,497,000 after purchasing an additional 383,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 3,192,762 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $218,034,000 after purchasing an additional 651,847 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WDC. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $90.00 to $82.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Benchmark downgraded Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on Western Digital from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $85.65.

Western Digital Price Performance

WDC stock opened at $65.04 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.48 billion, a PE ratio of 38.26 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $65.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $66.31. Western Digital Co. has a 52-week low of $52.76 and a 52-week high of $81.55.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($1.97) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 48.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Western Digital Co. will post 6.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, CEO David Goeckeler sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.58, for a total transaction of $5,443,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 821,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,633,905.40. The trade was a 8.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 658 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 28,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,020,121.37. This represents a 2.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 109,107 shares of company stock worth $7,768,381 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.