Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Raised to Strong-Buy at Wall Street Zen

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. UBS Group cut their target price on Western Digital from $560.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Rosenblatt Securities cut their price objective on Western Digital from $900.00 to $800.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $434.30 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $565.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $418.73. Western Digital has a twelve month low of $73.14 and a twelve month high of $799.87. The firm has a market cap of $149.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.94 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.66 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 18.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total transaction of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at $60,663,290.57. The trade was a 0.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,093 shares of company stock valued at $2,751,337. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WDC. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth about $2,270,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 33.6% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,122,095 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $193,303,000 after purchasing an additional 282,156 shares during the last quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $20,889,000. World Investment Advisors grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 145.8% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 5,950 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,025,000 after buying an additional 3,529 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 62.1% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 342,516 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $59,040,000 after buying an additional 131,247 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of approximately $3.75 billion, up about 44% year over year, and adjusted earnings of $3.56 per share—both ahead of Wall Street expectations. Growth was supported by AI-related cloud storage demand, stronger pricing, and higher-capacity hard-disk drives. Western Digital Q4 Earnings Beat as Revenue Jumps 44% on Cloud Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Management highlighted strong visibility into AI-storage demand, with some customers negotiating capacity commitments through 2031. The company also expects continued margin expansion, while analysts remain broadly constructive; recent price targets include $630 from Baird and a $575 median across 15 analysts. Western Digital Says AI Customers Are Already Negotiating Storage Deals Through 2031
• Neutral Sentiment: The selloff is part of a broader rotation within semiconductor and memory stocks. Investors have been shifting toward AI networking leaders, while comparing Western Digital’s results with stronger results from rival Seagate Technology. Western Digital Slumps Despite Q2 Beat as Analysts Highlight Peer Seagate’s Results
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share, payable September 17 to shareholders of record September 8. The dividend provides a modest shareholder return but is unlikely to drive the near-term trading reaction.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors viewed fiscal-first-quarter 2027 gross-margin guidance of 55%–56% as insufficiently strong after the stock’s dramatic advance and elevated expectations. Although the outlook implies sequential improvement, it trailed the bar set by Seagate and was interpreted as evidence that the recent margin expansion may be stabilizing. Western Digital Shares Fall as Margin Outlook Tempers Strong Q4 Results
• Negative Sentiment: Profit-taking intensified because Western Digital had already rallied sharply on the AI-storage theme. The strong earnings beat therefore failed to exceed the market’s unusually high expectations, prompting a valuation reset and technical concerns around support levels. Sandisk, Western Digital Drag on Chip Stocks as Lofty Expectations Eclipse Strong Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Reported insider activity has been heavily tilted toward selling, with 129 sales and no purchases over the past six months. While such transactions may reflect diversification or compensation, the lack of insider buying adds to near-term investor caution.

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.