Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Up 2.8% – Here’s What Happened

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares shot up 2.8% on Monday . The company traded as high as $564.14 and last traded at $546.20. 5,976,305 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 33% from the average session volume of 8,940,161 shares. The stock had previously closed at $531.21.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is gaining alongside a broader surge in memory and storage stocks as the AI memory supercycle drives renewed buying across the group. Micron Rises 7%, Western Digital Climbs and SanDisk Climb 4% as Memory Stocks Extend Parabolic Run
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains supportive after Barclays raised its price target to $620 from $450 and kept an Overweight rating, reinforcing the bullish earnings and supply-demand outlook. Barclays Raises its Price Target on Western Digital (WDC)
• Positive Sentiment: Evercore ISI also lifted its target to $575 from $410 and kept an Outperform rating, adding to expectations that Western Digital can continue to benefit from strong memory pricing and demand. Here’s What Evercore Now Says About Western Digital Corp (WDC) Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital highlighted its role in AI infrastructure at Computex 2026, emphasizing that AI creates persistent data demand beyond compute, which supports a favorable long-term growth narrative. WD at Computex 2026: AI Doesn’t Just Run on Compute – It Runs on Data
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles framed WDC as a high-momentum stock with large year-to-date and one-year gains, but also noted that valuations and sentiment have become stretched after the run-up. SanDisk Stock Near $1,700: Two Risks That Could Break the Momentum
• Neutral Sentiment: A report noting that an investor stake was sold in Western Digital is worth watching, but it appears to be more of a portfolio-update headline than a clear operational warning. Western Digital Corporation (WDC): Leopold Aschenbrenner Is Selling This Stock

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho set a $470.00 price target on Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $416.63.

Western Digital Stock Up 2.8%

The company has a market capitalization of $188.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.61 and a beta of 2.13. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $396.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $281.78.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 2.99%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total transaction of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at $39,905,270.79. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents 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. Insiders sold a total of 54,405 shares of company stock valued at $18,575,428 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. IMG Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 853.8% during the 1st quarter. IMG Wealth Management Inc. now owns 124 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 33.3% during the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 132 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 80.2% during the 1st quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.