Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Up 8.2% – Still a Buy?

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

Key Western Digital News

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

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on WDC shares. Loop Capital raised their price target on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. New Street Research set a $250.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $285.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Up 6.7%

The firm has a market capitalization of $97.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 1.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $231.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $162.41.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 308 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.70, for a total transaction of $86,763.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 134,759 shares in the company, valued at $37,961,610.30. This represents a 0.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 67,392 shares of company stock valued at $17,235,141 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of WDC. MidFirst Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth about $244,000. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. bought a new position in Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth approximately $645,000. Amanah Holdings Trust bought a new position in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth $54,265,000. Stone Wealth Partners purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,010,000. Finally, Blue Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $649,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.