Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Down 7.9% – What’s Next?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) was down 7.9% on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $510.37 and last traded at $532.10. Approximately 7,956,175 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 13% from the average daily volume of 9,153,423 shares. The stock had previously closed at $577.46.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Memory and storage stocks reversed a recent selloff, lifting WDC along with peers such as Seagate, Micron, and SanDisk as investors rotated back into the AI storage theme. Western Digital and Seagate Surge 7%, Micron and SanDisk Climb 6% as Memory Selloff Reverses
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts have turned more constructive on Western Digital, with recent reports highlighting rising price targets and a bullish view on AI-related storage demand. Western Digital gains as analysts turn more bullish on AI storage demand
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is also benefiting from confidence in its HAMR roadmap and long-term customer deals, which could support future hard drive capacity growth as AI data center demand expands. Will Western Digital’s HAMR Push Accelerate Future Growth?
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader market coverage also points to a rebound in AI and memory names as investor sentiment improves after fears tied to geopolitical headlines eased. Lumentum, Sandisk, Applied Materials, AstraZeneca, and More Stocks That Explain Today’s Market
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent commentary also notes that WDC has been a huge winner over the past year, reflecting strong momentum already built into the stock. WDC Stock Outshines Industry Returns in a Year: Should You Jump In?
• Negative Sentiment: Some caution remains because Susquehanna raised its target but kept a neutral rating, suggesting upside may already be partly priced in after the rally. Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Price Target Raised to $500.00 at Susquehanna

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on WDC shares. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $502.12.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $548.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $368.57. The company has a market capitalization of $199.08 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54 and a beta of 2.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The business 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%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio is 3.58%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at about $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Western Digital by 11.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $456,884,000 after buying an additional 384,103 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 70.4% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $512,107,000 after acquiring an additional 1,228,661 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.