Principal Financial Group Inc. Has $25.65 Million Stock Position in Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) by 26.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 375,637 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 136,704 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.11% of Western Digital worth $25,652,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Aigen Investment Management LP lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 124.2% in the third quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP now owns 21,412 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,462,000 after buying an additional 11,860 shares during the period. Avala Global LP lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 49.0% in the 3rd quarter. Avala Global LP now owns 1,147,700 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $78,376,000 after purchasing an additional 377,500 shares during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 291,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $19,925,000 after purchasing an additional 47,965 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 277,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $18,917,000 after purchasing an additional 27,849 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 137.9% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 43,575 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,976,000 after purchasing an additional 25,262 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WDC. Barclays raised their target price on Western Digital from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. BNP Paribas decreased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $95.00 to $90.00 in a report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Western Digital from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $95.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 658 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.99, for a total transaction of $46,053.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,020,121.37. The trade was a 2.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO David Goeckeler sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.32, for a total value 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 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 quarter. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $61.70 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 capitalization of $21.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.29 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The business has a 50-day moving average of $67.20 and a 200-day moving average of $68.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $4.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.12 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 8.57% and a net margin of 4.81%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 48.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($1.97) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict 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.