Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 1.5% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) traded down 1.5% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $443.02 and last traded at $462.00. Approximately 7,534,950 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 15% from the average session volume of 8,823,615 shares. The stock had previously closed at $468.88.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: NVIDIA’s reported $279 billion memory commitment reinforces expectations that AI infrastructure, cloud computing and data-intensive workloads will support long-term demand for storage products. Western Digital remains among the companies viewed as beneficiaries of this trend. Micron Lags Despite NVIDIA’s $279B Memory Commitment; Western Digital Drops 4%, SK Hynix Ticks Up
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst coverage remains generally favorable. Articles cite bullish brokerage recommendations, upward earnings-estimate revisions and a median price target of about $597.50, while Zacks identifies WDC as a potential beneficiary of momentum in AI, cloud, automotive and IoT storage demand. Is It Worth Investing in Western Digital (WDC) Based on Wall Street’s Bullish Views?
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital disclosed agreements to exchange approximately $191 million of 3.00% convertible notes due 2028 for cash and common shares. The transaction may reduce debt, but issuing shares could create dilution. What’s Going on With Western Digital Stock on Wednesday?
• Negative Sentiment: Memory stocks, including WDC, are falling even as semiconductor shares broadly advance. Investors appear to be unwinding an extended and crowded memory trade, taking profits after substantial gains and weighing company-specific risks against AI optimism. Why Are Memory Stocks Falling Despite Nvidia’s Results?
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider-trading data shows selling rather than buying by company insiders, which may weigh on sentiment, although the transactions do not necessarily indicate a change in business fundamentals.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Summit Insights downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $159.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.08 and a beta of 2.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $538.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $438.22.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.66 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 2.48%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This trade represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 24,634 shares of company stock worth $11,357,073. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 64,424.3% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 338,388,746 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $216,135,660,000 after purchasing an additional 337,864,310 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after buying an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Western Digital by 70.4% in 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 buying an additional 1,228,661 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.