Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Up 4.6% – Here’s What Happened

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price shot up 4.6% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $741.85 and last traded at $712.13. 13,383,801 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 51% from the average session volume of 8,872,510 shares. The stock had previously closed at $681.08.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s latest bullish note and higher price target helped fuel the move, reinforcing the view that Western Digital is benefiting from strong demand for enterprise HDDs and AI data-center storage. Western Digital Stock Just Hit a New All-Time High. Here’s Why.
• Positive Sentiment: Investors are still re-rating WDC as a key AI infrastructure play, with reports highlighting multiyear hyperscaler commitments, tight storage supply, and improving pricing power across the memory/storage sector. Hyperscaler’s Multiyear Commitment with Western Digital (WDC) Highlights Robust Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Momentum traders are piling in after WDC’s breakout to new highs, with articles noting a strong multi-day winning streak and unusually heavy volume as AI and cloud demand expectations keep rising. Western Digital (WDC) is a Great Momentum Stock: Should You Buy?
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst commentary is broadly constructive, but some pieces suggest the stock may be extended after its sharp run and could see a near-term pullback if expectations get ahead of fundamentals. Western Digital stock looks ripe for a near-term pullback: find out more

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on WDC. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital to $495.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $450.46.

Western Digital Stock Up 4.6%

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $462.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $316.21. The company has a market cap of $245.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.52 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its 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 for 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%. Western Digital’s revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 3.58%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Avion Wealth increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 163.8% in the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter worth $32,000. Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, BOKF NA increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6,700.0% in the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.