Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 4.4% – Here’s Why

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s stock price rose 4.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $516.35 and last traded at $508.80. 9,852,246 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 10% from the average session volume of 8,933,262 shares. The stock had previously closed at $487.29.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Sector rally supports WDC. SanDisk’s bullish long-term growth targets, including expectations for sustained flash-memory demand, boosted sentiment toward storage companies. Western Digital benefited from the read-through, particularly as investors anticipate continued AI infrastructure spending on HDD and NAND storage. SanDisk outlook article
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and quantitative signals improved. Zacks upgraded Western Digital to Rank #1, or “Strong Buy,” citing improving earnings prospects. WDC was also included among Zacks’ top momentum stocks, while JPMorgan reportedly raised its price target to $650. Zacks upgrade article
• Positive Sentiment: Recent results provide fundamental support. Western Digital’s latest quarter exceeded consensus estimates for both earnings and revenue, with revenue rising 43.8% year over year. Stronger pricing, high-capacity drive demand and AI-driven storage requirements are supporting expectations for continued growth. WDC sector rally article
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional positioning is mixed: JPMorgan and Capital World Investors added shares, while several large investors reduced holdings. The conflicting activity does not establish a clear institutional trend.
• Negative Sentiment: Elevated expectations remain a risk. Despite the earnings beat, WDC shares previously fell sharply because management’s guidance did not exceed demanding investor expectations. Concerns remain about moderating sequential growth, NAND pricing volatility and whether the AI-driven storage cycle has peaked. WDC earnings reaction article
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling may weigh on sentiment. CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares for approximately $8.9 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. Broader data shows substantial insider selling and no reported insider purchases during the past six months. CEO insider sale article

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WDC shares. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price target on Western Digital from $900.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $556.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $425.47. The company has a market cap of $175.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02 and a beta of 2.14.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 25,093 shares of company stock worth $11,650,737 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its stake in Western Digital by 71.4% in the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 230,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $147,275,000 after buying an additional 96,078 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth about $2,270,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 33.6% in the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,122,095 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $193,303,000 after acquiring an additional 282,156 shares in the last quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at about $20,889,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 145.8% in the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 5,950 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,025,000 after acquiring an additional 3,529 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.