Brokerages Set Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) PT at $395.83

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-two research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $395.8261.

WDC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Western Digital from $335.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, New Street Research set a $250.00 price target on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: WDC is bouncing with the broader memory/storage complex, as SanDisk and Micron also moved higher and investors viewed the recent selloff as overdone. SanDisk Soars 9%, Western Digital Rallies 5%, Micron Rises 3% as Memory Trade Reawakens
• Positive Sentiment: Investors are still responding to the company’s upbeat guidance and strong AI data-center storage narrative, which suggests demand and pricing trends remain favorable. Western Digital jumps 4.6% as AI-storage pricing narrative stays hot after upbeat guidance and capital-structure moves
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent coverage also framed WDC as part of a valuation/momentum discussion after a strong run, which may be contributing to trading interest but does not clearly change the fundamental outlook. Western Digital (WDC) Valuation Check After Strong 1-Year Return And Recent Share Price Cooldown
• Negative Sentiment: The stock was pressured earlier as a former Samsung executive warned that expanding memory-chip production in China could eventually weigh on pricing, raising concerns about a potential supply-driven downturn. Seagate and Western Digital Stocks Trade Down, What You Need To Know

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 363 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.09, for a total value of $136,883.67. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 120,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,259,473.07. The trade was a 0.30% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 53,679 shares of company stock worth $18,049,314 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter worth about $32,000. IMG Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 853.8% during the first quarter. IMG Wealth Management Inc. now owns 124 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 33.3% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 132 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 80.2% during the first quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $486.46 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $167.67 billion, a PE ratio of 29.04 and a beta of 2.10. Western Digital has a one year low of $49.00 and a one year high of $525.15. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $368.71 and a 200 day moving average of $266.89.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.99%.

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.