Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 1.6% – Here’s What Happened

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) dropped 1.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $420.88 and last traded at $441.57. 5,496,777 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 37% from the average daily volume of 8,712,376 shares. The stock had previously closed at $448.90.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: A broad rally in memory stocks lifted Western Digital alongside SK Hynix and Seagate. Investors appear to be responding to stronger memory pricing, supply tightness and continued demand from artificial-intelligence data centers. SK Hynix Surges 7% as Memory Bid Widens Beyond NAND; Seagate Rallies 5%
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s investment case is supported by AI-driven storage growth, higher hard-disk-drive pricing and expanding margins. Recent earnings also showed revenue growth and earnings above consensus, while management’s next-quarter guidance points to continued momentum. WDC Stock’s Big Rally: Buy, Sell, or Hold After a 70% 6-Month Surge?
• Positive Sentiment: China’s progress in memory manufacturing is not viewed as an immediate threat because Western Digital and peers reportedly have capacity committed under multiyear contracts. That could help protect near-term pricing and margins. Why China’s Memory Chip Breakthrough Won’t Crash the Market
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly constructive, with reported price targets above the current trading level, but the stock’s sharp six-month advance has made expectations demanding. Investors are watching whether future earnings estimates can justify the valuation. WDC Stock’s Big Rally: Buy, Sell, or Hold After a 70% 6-Month Surge?
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider transactions have consisted of sales rather than purchases, including a director’s sale of roughly $2.5 million in shares. Insider selling and profit-taking previously pressured WDC, while the stock’s elevated valuation leaves it vulnerable if storage-sector momentum fades. Western Digital Falls as Sector Weakness and Insider Selling Weigh on Shares

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Bank of America upped their price target on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Up 5.9%

The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $506.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $445.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $161.12 billion, a PE ratio of 19.31, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 2.13.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $256,287,591.02. This represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total value of $481,708.52. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 112,155 shares in the company, valued at $53,650,465.80. This trade represents a 0.89% 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 sold 23,210 shares of company stock valued at $10,440,960 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 7.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,698,000 after purchasing an additional 3,019 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in Western Digital by 229.7% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 55.3% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after buying an additional 845 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.