Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Grows Stock Holdings in Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) by 1,089.7% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,071,600 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 981,527 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $73,126,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 37.3% in the first quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 843 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,577 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $135,000 after buying an additional 254 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in Western Digital by 0.5% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 57,050 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,893,000 after buying an additional 261 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 32,611 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,708,000 after buying an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Western Digital from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Raymond James cut shares of Western Digital from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $80.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.96.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 416 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.88, for a total value of $29,902.08. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 30,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,179,473.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 416 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.88, for a total value of $29,902.08. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 30,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,179,473.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Robert Soderbery sold 26,853 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.48, for a total transaction of $1,973,158.44. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 144,623 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,626,898.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 27,488 shares of company stock worth $2,020,143 over the last 90 days. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC stock opened at $68.26 on Friday. Western Digital Co. has a 52 week low of $35.62 and a 52 week high of $81.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $75.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.73.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The data storage provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.42. Western Digital had a negative net margin of 12.87% and a negative return on equity of 13.75%. The business had revenue of $3.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($1.57) earnings per share. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 23.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Western Digital Co. will post -1.33 EPS 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.