Western Digital Corporation $WDC Stock: Inspire Investing LLC Decreases Holdings

Inspire Investing LLC reduced its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) by 37.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 18,983 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 11,270 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $8,627,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 71.4% in the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 230,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $147,275,000 after acquiring an additional 96,078 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $19,694,000. NewEdge Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $14,466,000. OneAscent Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,599,000. Finally, Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth about $8,307,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was 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 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 807 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $380.00, for a total value of $306,660.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 108,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,392,640. This trade represents a 0.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $740.00 to $660.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Western Digital from $730.00 to $450.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 16th. Wedbush raised their target price on Western Digital from $540.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on Western Digital from $900.00 to $625.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities cut their target price on Western Digital from $800.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $584.00.

Western Digital Trading Down 3.0%

Western Digital stock opened at $343.67 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $128.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.34, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 2.11. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $432.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $479.51. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $121.85 and a 52 week high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.11 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 69.20% and a return on equity of 56.91%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 55.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.78 EPS. Research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.1750 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 4th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.48%.

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.