Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Purchased by Synovus Financial Corp

Synovus Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) by 20.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,562 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,591 shares during the quarter. Synovus Financial Corp’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $653,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 5.4% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,929 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $200,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the period. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 22.6% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 932 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.3% in the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 15,962 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,209,000 after acquiring an additional 203 shares during the period. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.3% in the second quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 10,344 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $784,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.4% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 10,891 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $744,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on WDC shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Western Digital from $94.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Western Digital from $79.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $92.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays increased their price target on Western Digital from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on Western Digital from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.71.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David Goeckeler sold 75,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 896,630 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,051,021.60. This trade represents a 7.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Robert Soderbery sold 30,767 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.01, for a total value of $2,092,463.67. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 135,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,208,417.98. This represents a 18.52 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 184,107 shares of company stock worth $13,042,381 over the last 90 days. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Western Digital Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of WDC stock opened at $64.64 on Wednesday. Western Digital Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.96 and a fifty-two week high of $81.55. The stock has a market cap of $22.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.02 and a beta of 1.42. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.23. Western Digital had a return on equity of 8.57% and a net margin of 4.81%. The business had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($1.97) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 48.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast 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.