Wells Fargo & Company Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price objective boosted by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company to $335.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 29.93% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on WDC. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Benchmark upped their target price on Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, UBS Group set a $306.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $244.95.

Western Digital Stock Down 7.4%

NASDAQ WDC traded down $20.58 during trading on Friday, hitting $257.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,903,479 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,588,625. Western Digital has a fifty-two week low of $28.83 and a fifty-two week high of $285.42. The company has a market cap of $88.15 billion, a PE ratio of 37.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $191.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $135.34.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 30.89% and a net margin of 21.37%.The firm’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 2,801 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $160.57, for a total value of $449,756.57. Following the sale, the insider owned 144,596 shares in the company, valued at $23,217,779.72. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.69, for a total transaction of $3,013,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 645,467 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,265,422.23. This trade represents a 3.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 26,816 shares of company stock valued at $4,116,148. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Western Digital by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,982 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $341,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 0.8% in the third quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,329 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,120,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 7.1% during the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $154,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JFS Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Western Digital by 41.5% during the fourth quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 293 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

• Positive Sentiment: WDC beat Q2 EPS and revenue, reported expanding margins and cited robust AI/data‑center demand — management also guided Q3 revenue and EPS above consensus, giving the market forward visibility. Western Digital Reports Fiscal Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts sharply increased targets and maintained buy/outperform calls — TD Cowen and Citi lifted targets to $325, Morgan Stanley kept a Buy with a ~$306 target, and Wedbush raised to $325 — these raises underpin bullish expectations for continued AI-driven HDD demand and margin expansion. TD Cowen price target raise
• Positive Sentiment: Market writeups and newsflow highlight accelerating data‑center/HDD adoption for AI, which is driving the sector rotation into storage names and supporting higher revenue cadence. Reuters: Western Digital expects quarterly revenue above estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple outlets posted full earnings and call transcripts / slide deck for investor review — useful for digging into capacity, HAMR progress and customer contract details. WDC Q2 2026 Earnings Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital declared a small quarterly dividend (annualized yield ~0.2%); not material to valuation but noted by income‑focused holders.
• Negative Sentiment: After a run to all‑time highs and significant bullish analyst coverage, intraday profit‑taking and rotation out of momentum names pushed the share price lower despite the positive beats — some commentators cautioned against chasing the stock at stretched levels. Why WDC stock soared / cautionary pieces

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage devices and systems for personal, enterprise and cloud applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company develops hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), NAND flash components and finished storage products used in PCs, external storage, servers, network-attached storage (NAS) and embedded systems.

Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial markets, including internal and external HDDs and SSDs, removable flash memory products and storage platforms for data center and enterprise environments.