Portolan Capital Management LLC Sells 220,770 Shares of Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC)

Portolan Capital Management LLC lowered its position in shares of Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) by 62.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 135,227 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 220,770 shares during the quarter. Portolan Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $9,235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aigen Investment Management LP lifted its position in Western Digital by 124.2% during 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. KBC Group NV lifted its position in Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 277,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $18,917,000 after buying an additional 27,849 shares during the period. Swedbank AB lifted its position in Western Digital by 19.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 291,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $19,925,000 after buying an additional 47,965 shares during the period. Avala Global LP lifted its position in Western Digital by 49.0% during the third quarter. Avala Global LP now owns 1,147,700 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $78,376,000 after buying an additional 377,500 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 137.9% during 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 buying an additional 25,262 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on WDC. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Western Digital from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Western Digital from $75.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Western Digital from $79.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Western Digital from $94.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.71.

Western Digital Trading Down 2.4 %

Western Digital stock opened at $71.69 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.04. The company has a market cap of $24.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.17 and a beta of 1.42. Western Digital Co. has a 52-week low of $46.47 and a 52-week high of $81.55. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The data storage provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $4.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($1.97) EPS. Analysts predict that Western Digital Co. will post 6.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, EVP Robert Soderbery sold 30,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.01, for a total transaction of $2,092,463.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 135,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,208,417.98. The trade was a 18.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 1,993 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.94, for a total value of $139,390.42. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 30,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,140,723.52. This trade represents a 6.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 184,107 shares of company stock worth $13,042,381 in the last three months. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.