Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading 5% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) traded up 5% on Thursday after Susquehanna raised their price target on the stock from $360.00 to $500.00. Susquehanna currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Western Digital traded as high as $601.50 and last traded at $578.05. 6,715,529 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 26% from the average daily volume of 9,117,367 shares. The stock had previously closed at $550.30.

Several other brokerages have also commented on WDC. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Fox Advisors lowered shares of Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $502.12.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Memory and storage stocks reversed a recent selloff, lifting WDC along with peers such as Seagate, Micron, and SanDisk as investors rotated back into the AI storage theme. Western Digital and Seagate Surge 7%, Micron and SanDisk Climb 6% as Memory Selloff Reverses
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts have turned more constructive on Western Digital, with recent reports highlighting rising price targets and a bullish view on AI-related storage demand. Western Digital gains as analysts turn more bullish on AI storage demand
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is also benefiting from confidence in its HAMR roadmap and long-term customer deals, which could support future hard drive capacity growth as AI data center demand expands. Will Western Digital’s HAMR Push Accelerate Future Growth?
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market coverage also points to a rebound in AI and memory names as investor sentiment improves after fears tied to geopolitical headlines eased. Lumentum, Sandisk, Applied Materials, AstraZeneca, and More Stocks That Explain Today’s Market
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent commentary also notes that WDC has been a huge winner over the past year, reflecting strong momentum already built into the stock. WDC Stock Outshines Industry Returns in a Year: Should You Jump In?
• Negative Sentiment: Some caution remains because Susquehanna raised its target but kept a neutral rating, suggesting upside may already be partly priced in after the rally. Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target Raised to $500.00 at Susquehanna

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 70.4% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $512,107,000 after acquiring an additional 1,228,661 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital Stock Up 5.0%

The company has a market capitalization of $199.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.51 and a beta of 2.11. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $548.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $368.57.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

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.