Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Grows Holdings in Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Western Digital Co. (NASDAQ:WDC) by 8.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,503 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 439 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $328,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WDC. Securian Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,579 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,108,000 after acquiring an additional 531 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,309 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $197,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 17,651 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,053,000 after purchasing an additional 917 shares during the last quarter. Highland Peak Capital LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 122.4% during the 4th quarter. Highland Peak Capital LLC now owns 211,851 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $12,633,000 after purchasing an additional 116,601 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 51,194 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,053,000 after acquiring an additional 6,320 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America cut their price objective on Western Digital from $89.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $60.45 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price target on Western Digital from $115.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays reduced their price target on Western Digital from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Western Digital from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.21.

Western Digital Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of WDC stock opened at $43.39 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.26. Western Digital Co. has a one year low of $39.42 and a one year high of $81.55. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $57.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $62.86. The company has a market capitalization of $15.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.33 and a beta of 1.42.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by ($0.36). Western Digital had a return on equity of 15.68% and a net margin of 9.95%. Sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital Co. will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Gene M. Zamiska sold 1,659 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.36, for a total value of $68,616.24. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 43,776 shares in the company, valued at $1,810,575.36. The trade was a 3.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.