Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target Raised to $650.00

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) had its price target raised by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $600.00 to $650.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Western Digital from $540.00 to $430.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $590.00 to $770.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $540.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird set a $900.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.04.

Western Digital Stock Performance

WDC opened at $343.67 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $128.64 billion, a PE ratio of 13.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 2.11. Western Digital has a 1 year low of $121.85 and a 1 year high of $799.87. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $432.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $480.74.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 55.62% and a net margin of 69.20%. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 55.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.78 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 19.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 4th will be paid a $0.1750 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 4th. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 2.33%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at $256,287,591.02. This represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total value of $825,466.65. Following the transaction, the insider owned 80,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,052,185.77. This represents a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 in the last 90 days. 0.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth $1,602,927,000. ABS Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at $1,226,342,000. Anther Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $901,601,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $885,565,000. Finally, Trivest Advisors Ltd acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $627,606,000. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital reported fiscal Q1 2027 adjusted EPS of $4.64, above the roughly $4.09–$4.11 consensus, while revenue rose 55.5% year over year to $4.38 billion. Growth was driven by strong cloud and data-center demand, higher-capacity drives and improved pricing. Western Digital Q1 earnings and revenues beat estimates
• Positive Sentiment: Management issued substantially stronger-than-expected fiscal Q2 guidance, calling for revenue of approximately $5.0 billion to $5.2 billion and adjusted EPS of $5.60 to $6.00, versus consensus estimates near $4.5 billion and $4.72, respectively. Western Digital forecasts strong second-quarter growth
• Positive Sentiment: AI-related storage demand remains durable, with management citing growing requirements from inference, robotics and long-term data retention. Analysts and industry commentators expect HDDs to remain an important, cost-effective storage layer for data centers, potentially supporting demand visibility into 2030–2031. Western Digital CEO discusses durable AI storage demand
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital generated about $1.38 billion in free cash flow and increased its quarterly dividend 16.7% to $0.175 per share. JPMorgan also raised its price target to $650 and maintained an overweight rating. Western Digital Q1 revenue and dividend update
• Neutral Sentiment: Other analysts remained bullish but reduced some price targets, reflecting elevated expectations and uncertainty around the pace of future growth. TD Cowen, for example, lowered its target to $430 while retaining a buy rating; Rosenblatt and Cantor Fitzgerald also cut targets but remained positive.
• Negative Sentiment: The stock’s strong results were not enough to overcome a broad sell-off in AI, memory and technology shares. Investors are questioning whether hyperscaler capital spending can remain elevated and whether Western Digital’s unusually strong HDD pricing and margins are sustainable.
• Negative Sentiment: Higher planned capital expenditures, possible industry supply increases, inventory concerns and execution risks surrounding the HAMR technology transition are weighing on sentiment. Management also acknowledged that HDD price growth could eventually moderate. Western Digital faces capex and supply concerns
• Negative Sentiment: A disclosed insider sale of 807 shares worth approximately $306,660 added a modest sentiment overhang, although it was conducted under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and represented only a small portion of the insider’s holdings. SEC insider transaction filing

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.