Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 3% – Should You Sell?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares fell 3% on Friday . The company traded as low as $442.78 and last traded at $447.18. 4,964,309 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 42% from the average daily volume of 8,604,285 shares. The stock had previously closed at $460.93.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bullish analyst view remains intact: Citi reaffirmed a Buy rating and raised its price target to $740, citing AI-driven storage demand that is outpacing supply. Recent analyst targets include a median of $597.50, with several targets ranging from $650 to $900. Western Digital Buy Rating Reaffirmed
• Positive Sentiment: Fundamental support: Western Digital’s latest reported quarter showed 43.8% year-over-year revenue growth, earnings above consensus and first-quarter fiscal 2027 guidance of $3.85–$4.15 per share. Bullish commentary argues that the recent correction removed speculative excess without undermining the company’s longer-term compounding potential. Western Digital The Correction Priced Out The Froth
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data provides little signal: Reported short interest was zero shares, with a zero-day days-to-cover ratio, suggesting the data may be incomplete or unreliable rather than indicating meaningful short positioning.
• Negative Sentiment: DeepSeek-driven AI concerns pressured the sector: An apparent breakthrough in AI efficiency raised questions about how much computing and storage infrastructure future AI systems may require, contributing to a selloff across storage and semiconductor equities. Western Digital Stock Slips Friday
• Negative Sentiment: Macro and trading pressures added to the decline: Rising Treasury yields and higher oil prices hurt high-growth technology shares, while weakness in Micron and Seagate highlighted a broad memory and storage selloff. Recent insider filings also show substantial selling and no reported insider purchases, creating an additional near-term overhang. Western Digital Falls as Storage Stocks Slide

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $500.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Bank of America raised their target price on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. Summit Insights downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Fox Advisors lowered shares of Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Down 3.0%

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $495.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $452.06. The company has a market capitalization of $154.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 2.13.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 112,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $53,650,465.80. The trade was a 0.89% decrease in their position. 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. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,437 shares of company stock valued at $11,461,345. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WDC. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 71.4% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 230,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $147,275,000 after buying an additional 96,078 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Western Digital by 33.6% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,122,095 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $193,303,000 after acquiring an additional 282,156 shares during the last quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at about $20,889,000. World Investment Advisors increased its position in Western Digital by 145.8% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 5,950 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,025,000 after acquiring an additional 3,529 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter worth about $19,694,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) develops, manufactures and sells data storage products and solutions for data centers, cloud service providers, enterprises, businesses and consumers. Its portfolio is centered on hard disk drives (HDDs), including high-capacity enterprise drives used in cloud and data center environments, as well as products for network-attached storage, surveillance and personal computing.

The company markets products under brands including Western Digital, WD, WD_BLACK and Ultrastar.