Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 5.3% – Time to Sell?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) fell 5.3% on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $484.50 and last traded at $490.09. 5,926,347 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 33% from the average session volume of 8,808,392 shares. The stock had previously closed at $517.72.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on Western Digital from $530 to $650 and reiterated an overweight rating, signaling more upside potential for the shares. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company announced a Sandisk share exchange with institutional investors, a move that has been interpreted as supportive of the stock and part of a broader capital strategy. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital highlighted AI-focused storage innovation at Computex, reinforcing the market’s view that it is well positioned to benefit from data-center and AI infrastructure spending. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts also pointed to strong free cash flow, a larger dividend, and a new $4 billion buyback plan, which supports the investment case by showing confidence in cash generation and shareholder returns. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital has been outperforming the broader market over the past year, and brokerages still generally rate the stock a moderate buy, which supports sentiment but is more of a confirmation than a new catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One recent market note said WDC slipped with the broader market after a hotter-than-expected CPI report revived rate-hike concerns, showing that macro pressure can still weigh on the stock at times. Article Title

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WDC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $443.71.

Western Digital Stock Up 6.4%

The stock has a market capitalization of $194.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.61 and a beta of 2.13. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $441.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $306.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.58%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at $63,640,420.80. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of WDC. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth approximately $221,800,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter worth approximately $350,403,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.