California Public Employees Retirement System Increases Position in Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC)

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) by 20.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 515,793 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 87,281 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.15% of Western Digital worth $30,757,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 45,131 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,691,000 after buying an additional 11,013 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 841,700 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $50,191,000 after purchasing an additional 50,188 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 390,826 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $23,305,000 after buying an additional 15,189 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 83.9% during the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 31,634 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,886,000 after buying an additional 14,432 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its position in Western Digital by 53.3% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 99,444 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,930,000 after buying an additional 34,579 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WDC. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price objective on Western Digital from $95.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $74.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on Western Digital from $89.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 1,659 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.36, for a total transaction of $68,616.24. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 43,776 shares in the company, valued at $1,810,575.36. This trade represents a 3.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $41.78 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.95 and a beta of 1.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $54.13 and a 200-day moving average of $61.94. Western Digital Co. has a 52-week low of $39.10 and a 52-week high of $81.55.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.91 by ($0.36). Western Digital had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 15.68%. As a group, analysts predict that Western Digital Co. will post 4.89 EPS for the current 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.