Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 11.2% Following Analyst Upgrade

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) rose 11.2% on Monday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $610.00 to $732.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Western Digital traded as high as $652.98 and last traded at $651.88. Approximately 11,200,649 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 22% from the average session volume of 9,180,976 shares. The stock had previously closed at $586.45.

WDC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Citigroup lifted their target price on Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $493.52.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 90,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,905,270.79. This represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its price target on Western Digital to $732 from $610 and kept a buy rating, implying meaningful upside versus the current share price. Bank of America raises Western Digital target
• Positive Sentiment: Melius Research upgraded Western Digital to strong-buy, reinforcing the view that the stock still has room to run on improving fundamentals. Melius upgrades Western Digital to strong-buy
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts are reassessing fair value higher as AI-related storage demand and HDD pricing trends improve the outlook; one estimate was reset to $584.79 from $518.26. Fair value boost for Western Digital
• Positive Sentiment: Earlier coverage highlighted Western Digital as a momentum name in AI infrastructure, with options flow and analyst sentiment leaning bullish. Analysts see upside in Western Digital
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital’s recent strength has been supported by technical momentum, with the stock trading well above its 200-day moving average. Why Western Digital stock was gaining Tuesday
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the bullish analyst notes, WDC is being hit by a sector-wide selloff as memory stocks and the broader Nasdaq/semiconductor group pull back. Memory stocks pull back with the Nasdaq

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter worth $32,000. IMG Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 853.8% in the 1st quarter. IMG Wealth Management Inc. now owns 124 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 33 shares during the period. Finally, Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 65 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital Stock Down 6.3%

The stock has a market capitalization of $206.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.72 and a beta of 2.13. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $529.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $352.48.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

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.