Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33, FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 49.24% and a net margin of 55.29%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital updated its Q4 2026 guidance to 3.100-3.400 EPS.

Here are the key takeaways from Western Digital’s conference call:

• WD reported a strong quarter with $3.3B revenue (+45% YoY), $2.72 EPS (≈+97% YoY), 50.5% gross margin, and 222 exabytes shipped (+34% YoY), all above guidance.
• Management sees AI-driven secular tailwinds — agentic AI, inference, synthetic and physical AI — driving persistent storage needs and expects >25% long‑term exabyte CAGR.
• Product roadmap momentum — 40TB EPMR on track for H2 CY2026 volume, 44TB HAMR in qualification with four customers, and expanding UltraSMR adoption across major customers.
• Financial position strengthened — monetized SanDisk to cut ~$3.1B debt, achieved investment‑grade upgrades, ended with net cash ≈$450M, generated ~$978M free cash flow, raised dividend 20% and repurchased $752M of stock.
• HAMR is still in customer qualification with no explicit shipment share targets and ongoing yield/reliability work, creating execution risk and a phased adoption timeline for higher‑density supply.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC traded down $2.49 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $432.03. 15,448,279 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,646,722. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Western Digital has a twelve month low of $43.60 and a twelve month high of $446.62. The company has a market cap of $146.48 billion, a PE ratio of 43.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 2.10. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $314.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $233.19.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.02%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 8,518 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.32, for a total transaction of $2,174,815.76. Following the sale, the insider owned 99,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,347,148.32. This trade represents a 7.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 92,711 shares of company stock worth $24,300,404. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its position in Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new position in Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. JPL Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. BOKF NA raised its position in Western Digital by 6,700.0% during the 3rd quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 77.0% during the 4th quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 308 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Western Digital from $335.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. New Street Research set a $250.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $660.00 price objective on Western Digital in a research note on Friday. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $389.74.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: WDC beat expectations: Q3 EPS $2.72 and revenue $3.34B, both above consensus, and management raised FY‑Q4 guidance (EPS and revenue) — this underpins the bullish case for continued AI/cloud storage demand. Earnings & press materials
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analyst upgrades/target raises followed the quarter — Citi hiked its target to $500 (Buy) citing stronger visibility into AI-driven HDD demand, lifting investor optimism. Citi raises target to $500
• Positive Sentiment: Other firms (Rosenblatt, TD Cowen and others) boosted targets or reiterated Buy as AI/data‑center demand drives margin expansion and share‑buyback capacity; the company also announced a quarterly dividend increase, signalling confidence in cash flow.
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry signal — peers (SanDisk/Seagate) also reported strong results and demand commentary, confirming sector‑wide AI storage tailwinds but raising questions about how much of that is already priced in. Reuters: sector demand
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction was mixed — the stock slipped after the beat as some traders engaged in “buy the rumor, sell the news” profit‑taking following an enormous YTD run; elevated expectations mean strong results may not produce further immediate upside. Yahoo: stock falls despite beat
• Negative Sentiment: Not all analyst moves are bullish: UBS raised its target to $375 but kept a Neutral rating — that level implies downside from current prices and provides a near‑term anchor for traders focused on risk management. Benzinga: UBS target

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.