Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Gets Price Target Cut from Cantor Fitzgerald

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price objective decreased by Cantor Fitzgerald from $900.00 to $625.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has an overweight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

WDC has been the subject of a number of other reports. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $730.00 to $450.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $676.00 to $643.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on Western Digital from $660.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.04.

Western Digital Price Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $343.67 on Friday. Western Digital has a 52-week low of $121.85 and a 52-week high of $799.87. The company has a market cap of $128.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 2.11. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $432.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $480.74.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 69.20% and a return on equity of 55.62%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 55.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 19.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.1750 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 4th. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total value of $481,708.52. Following the sale, the insider owned 112,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $53,650,465.80. The trade was a 0.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total value of $825,466.65. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 80,571 shares in the company, valued at $37,052,185.77. This trade represents a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 25,436 shares of company stock worth $11,340,064 in the last quarter. 0.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter valued at $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter valued at $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 182.6% in the 3rd quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 65 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital reported fiscal Q1 2027 adjusted EPS of $4.64, above the roughly $4.09–$4.11 consensus, while revenue rose 55.5% year over year to $4.38 billion. Growth was driven by strong cloud and data-center demand, higher-capacity drives and improved pricing. Western Digital Q1 earnings and revenues beat estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management issued substantially stronger-than-expected fiscal Q2 guidance, calling for revenue of approximately $5.0 billion to $5.2 billion and adjusted EPS of $5.60 to $6.00, versus consensus estimates near $4.5 billion and $4.72, respectively. Western Digital forecasts strong second-quarter growth
• Positive Sentiment: AI-related storage demand remains durable, with management citing growing requirements from inference, robotics and long-term data retention. Analysts and industry commentators expect HDDs to remain an important, cost-effective storage layer for data centers, potentially supporting demand visibility into 2030–2031. Western Digital CEO discusses durable AI storage demand
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital generated about $1.38 billion in free cash flow and increased its quarterly dividend 16.7% to $0.175 per share. JPMorgan also raised its price target to $650 and maintained an overweight rating. Western Digital Q1 revenue and dividend update
• Neutral Sentiment: Other analysts remained bullish but reduced some price targets, reflecting elevated expectations and uncertainty around the pace of future growth. TD Cowen, for example, lowered its target to $430 while retaining a buy rating; Rosenblatt and Cantor Fitzgerald also cut targets but remained positive.
• Negative Sentiment: The stock’s strong results were not enough to overcome a broad sell-off in AI, memory and technology shares. Investors are questioning whether hyperscaler capital spending can remain elevated and whether Western Digital’s unusually strong HDD pricing and margins are sustainable.
• Negative Sentiment: Higher planned capital expenditures, possible industry supply increases, inventory concerns and execution risks surrounding the HAMR technology transition are weighing on sentiment. Management also acknowledged that HDD price growth could eventually moderate. Western Digital faces capex and supply concerns
• Negative Sentiment: A disclosed insider sale of 807 shares worth approximately $306,660 added a modest sentiment overhang, although it was conducted under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and represented only a small portion of the insider’s holdings. SEC insider transaction filing

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.