Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 3.1% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) traded down 3.1% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $564.56 and last traded at $575.50. 6,419,210 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 28% from the average session volume of 8,870,710 shares. The stock had previously closed at $594.11.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital continues to benefit from the AI storage theme. Coverage around Computex 2026 emphasized that AI growth depends on data infrastructure, reinforcing demand for Western Digital’s HDD and storage products. AI isn’t just a compute race. It’s a data race – and storage will decide the winners, WD shares
• Positive Sentiment: Citigroup reportedly raised its price target on Western Digital by 37%, which helped push the stock to new highs and signals stronger analyst confidence in the company’s valuation. Western Digital (WDC) Hits All-Time High as Citi Hikes PT by 37%
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlighted Western Digital’s new AI-focused storage technologies, including Ultrastar UltraSMR drives and post-quantum cryptography features, which support the bull case that WDC is positioned for long-term AI-driven demand. Why Western Digital (WDC) Is Up 12.0% After Unveiling New AI‑Focused Storage Technologies
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital also presented at recent technology conferences, keeping the company in focus, but those appearances did not appear to deliver a major new near-term catalyst on their own. Western Digital Corporation (WDC) Presents at 2026 Evercore Global TMT Conference Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: An insider sale by executive Vidyadhara K. Gubbi was disclosed, which can slightly weigh on sentiment even though the sale was relatively small versus the insider’s remaining holdings. SEC filing for insider sale

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on shares of Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Mizuho set a $470.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $424.33.

Western Digital Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $198.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.36 and a beta of 2.13. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $412.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $290.30.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company’s revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.99%.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 37,408 shares of company stock valued at $14,707,666. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Avion Wealth grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 163.8% during the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 207.0% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Western Digital

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.