Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Up 8.2% – Here’s Why

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares were up 8.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $297.56 and last traded at $292.73. Approximately 3,316,465 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 10,340,389 shares. The stock had previously closed at $270.57.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Board expands buyback by $4.0 billion and signals confidence in cash generation — increases near‑term stock demand and is an explicit capital‑return commitment that supports the rally. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Management outlined an AI‑era HDD roadmap (40TB UltraSMR in customer qualification; path to 100TB+ HAMR drives by 2029) and performance/power improvements — strengthens WDC’s AI/data‑center growth narrative and revenue runway. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street attention and recent analyst upgrades/“buy” coverage are reinforcing demand expectations and investor conviction around WDC as an AI‑infrastructure beneficiary. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Media retrospectives note last year’s SanDisk split helped the market better value WDC’s HDD business — a positive structural change but not an immediate catalyst. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Plans to monetize most of the remaining SanDisk stake (secondary sales / debt‑for‑equity moves) are being reported — while proceeds cut leverage, the sales raise short‑term supply/dilution concerns and have drawn selling pressure. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent small insider sales (Cynthia Tregillis disclosed sales totaling a few hundred shares) are minor in size but can amplify negative sentiment on days with volatility. Read More.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on WDC. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Barclays upped their price objective on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Benchmark lifted their target price on Western Digital from $115.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Up 6.7%

The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market cap of $97.91 billion, a PE ratio of 28.92, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.80. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $231.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $162.41.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be given a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $1,833,922.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 136,538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,932,163.62. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 67,392 shares of company stock worth $17,235,141. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth about $791,317,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its stake 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 valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $221,800,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.