Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 3% – Here’s Why

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) traded down 3% during trading on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $390.60 and last traded at $393.31. 8,687,752 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 0% from the average session volume of 8,646,472 shares. The stock had previously closed at $405.42.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Investor enthusiasm remains focused on accelerating hyperscale data-center construction and the resulting demand for Western Digital’s hard-disk storage products. Analysts believe disciplined industry supply could support pricing and sustain AI-storage momentum. Can Supply Discipline Sustain AI Storage Momentum for Western Digital
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary on Western Digital and Seagate suggests both companies have avoided aggressively adding capacity despite surging AI demand. That restraint could help preserve favorable supply-demand conditions, pricing power and margins if data-center demand remains strong. Seagate and Western Digital Capacity Strategy
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s consumer WD Black SN8100 solid-state drive is being compared with Samsung’s 9100 Pro, highlighting the company’s competitive product lineup in the high-performance storage market. Samsung 9100 Pro vs WD Black SN8100
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital’s investment case increasingly depends on AI infrastructure spending, while a large concentration of revenue among a small group of customers creates exposure to changes in hyperscaler purchasing plans. Western Digital and AI Storage Demand
• Negative Sentiment: Recent memory and storage-sector weakness has erased some of WDC’s earlier valuation gains. The stock has also faced volatility after Toshiba announced plans to nearly double HDD output for AI data centers, raising concerns about future competition and supply growth. Is Western Digital Fully Valued After Toshiba’s HDD Expansion Plan?
• Negative Sentiment: A sharply discounted 20-terabyte WD desktop hard drive raises questions about consumer HDD pricing and whether promotional activity reflects weaker demand or clearance inventory. WD 20TB Desktop Hard Drive Pricing

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on WDC shares. Summit Insights cut Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Western Digital from $560.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $900.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, September 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $620.67.

Western Digital Stock Up 1.0%

The stock has a market capitalization of $148.71 billion, a PE ratio of 16.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 2.11. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $456.06 and a 200-day moving average of $474.18.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total transaction of $481,708.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 112,155 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,650,465.80. This represents a 0.89% 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 sold 25,437 shares of company stock worth $11,461,345 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,602,927,000. Anther Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $901,601,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at approximately $885,565,000. Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $350,403,000. Finally, Trivest Advisors Ltd purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the second quarter worth approximately $627,606,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) develops, manufactures and supplies data-storage products and solutions. The company’s portfolio is centered on hard disk drives (HDDs) used in cloud and enterprise data centers, personal computers, network-attached storage systems and other applications that require high-capacity data storage.

Western Digital markets products under brands including Western Digital, WD and Ultrastar. Its offerings include enterprise and data-center HDDs, storage products for business and consumer systems, and related technologies designed to help organizations store, manage and access large volumes of data.

Founded in 1970, Western Digital has evolved from a maker of electronic components into a global data-storage company.