Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 4.9% – Time to Buy?

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) rose 4.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $729.00 and last traded at $675.39. Approximately 11,677,955 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 29% from the average daily volume of 9,058,049 shares. The stock had previously closed at $643.83.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s better-than-expected quarter and management’s upbeat commentary on AI memory demand sparked a broad rally in memory and storage stocks, benefiting Western Digital as part of the same trade. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and market commentators said the Micron report helped “justify elevated valuations” in memory stocks, which supports Western Digital’s recent move higher. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks highlighted a hammer chart pattern and rising earnings estimate revisions for WDC, suggesting the stock may be finding support and setting up for a trend reversal. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Another bullish note said Western Digital’s AI-driven HDD roadmap and strong cloud demand could give it more upside than some data-center peers. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary from investors and strategists has also pointed to Apple’s warning about rising memory costs as evidence of pricing power across the sector, which could further support WDC. Article Title

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on WDC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $450.46.

Western Digital Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $507.39 and a 200 day moving average of $339.36. The stock has a market cap of $232.79 billion, a PE ratio of 40.32 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.Western Digital’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 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3.58%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the sale, the insider owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was 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 $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Western Digital by 11.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Western Digital by 11.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,804,907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,737,000 after purchasing an additional 402,981 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 4,923.9% in 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 during the period. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.