Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Downgraded by Zacks Research to Hold

Zacks Research cut shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on WDC. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, China Renaissance initiated coverage on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price objective for the company. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $275.75.

Western Digital Price Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $297.73 on Tuesday. Western Digital has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $319.62. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $275.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $197.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market cap of $100.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.76.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were given a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after buying an additional 3,019 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Western Digital by 229.7% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $307,000. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Western Digital by 93.6% during the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 44,376 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,840,000 after acquiring an additional 21,453 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in Western Digital by 184.5% during the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 69,496 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,447,000 after acquiring an additional 45,065 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bernstein upgraded WDC to Outperform and doubled its price target to $340, calling recent weakness an attractive entry point—this triggered buying and helped lift the stock. Bernstein Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and industry pieces highlight durable AI/data-center demand, Multi-year hyperscaler contracts, and WDC’s shift to UltraSMR/high-capacity nearline drives — structural demand that supports margins and revenue visibility. AI Inference Storage Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Investors positioned ahead of WDC’s quarterly results, driving notable intraday gains as participants expect continued outperformance based on recent beats and strong guidance potential. Ahead of Earnings Positioning
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial wins — e.g., JetStor deploying 80PB using WDC Ultrastar drives — reinforce enterprise/customer traction for high-capacity products. JetStor Deployment
• Positive Sentiment: Sector-focused ETF product launches (Roundhill Memory ETF — DRAM) could attract incremental investor flows into memory/storage names, supporting multiple expansion for leaders like WDC. DRAM ETF Launch
• Neutral Sentiment: Retail promotions (e.g., steep discount on a WD 5TB portable drive) are visible but don’t clearly signal earnings impact; consumer promo activity is normal in the retail cycle. Retail Promo
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader sector narratives (SanDisk spinout’s strong performance, historical memory-stock volatility) keep WDC in investors’ crosshairs — useful context but not an immediate directional trigger on its own. Sector Context
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks downgraded WDC from “strong-buy” to “hold,” a near-term headwind for investor sentiment and potentially for short-term fund flows. Zacks Downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: Macro pressure — futures fell after inflation/rates concerns and a jump in the ISM prices index — which can cap gains in cyclical tech and storage names if rates stay elevated. Macro Inflation/Rate Worries
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst and algorithm-driven volatility has recently hit memory/storage stocks (sectorwide selloffs and downdrafts), adding risk that momentum reverses quickly. Sector Volatility

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.