Kovack Advisors Inc. Takes $262,000 Position in Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC)

Kovack Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 3,838 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $262,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.3% during the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 15,962 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,209,000 after buying an additional 203 shares in the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its holdings in Western Digital by 15.6% in the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 1,527 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $116,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 10.7% in the 2nd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 2,203 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $167,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 10,344 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $784,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6.0% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,696 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $313,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO David Goeckeler sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.32, for a total transaction of $5,274,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 896,630 shares in the company, valued at $63,051,021.60. This represents a 7.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Robert Soderbery sold 30,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.01, for a total value of $2,092,463.67. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 135,398 shares in the company, valued at $9,208,417.98. The trade was a 18.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 188,561 shares of company stock worth $13,309,042 over the last quarter. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on WDC. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $75.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $92.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Barclays increased their target price on Western Digital from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Western Digital from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.71.

Western Digital Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $62.80 on Friday. 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 price is $66.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $69.32. Western Digital Co. has a 52-week low of $45.23 and a 52-week high of $81.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.94 and a beta of 1.40.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.23. Western Digital had a return on equity of 8.57% and a net margin of 4.81%. The firm had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted ($1.97) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 48.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Western Digital Co. will post 6.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Company Profile

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.