Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Up 8% – Here’s Why

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) rose 8% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $529.72 and last traded at $529.29. Approximately 6,193,463 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 29% from the average daily volume of 8,785,049 shares. The stock had previously closed at $490.09.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on Western Digital from $530 to $650 and reiterated an overweight rating, signaling more upside potential for the shares. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company announced a Sandisk share exchange with institutional investors, a move that has been interpreted as supportive of the stock and part of a broader capital strategy. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital highlighted AI-focused storage innovation at Computex, reinforcing the market’s view that it is well positioned to benefit from data-center and AI infrastructure spending. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts also pointed to strong free cash flow, a larger dividend, and a new $4 billion buyback plan, which supports the investment case by showing confidence in cash generation and shareholder returns. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital has been outperforming the broader market over the past year, and brokerages still generally rate the stock a moderate buy, which supports sentiment but is more of a confirmation than a new catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One recent market note said WDC slipped with the broader market after a hotter-than-expected CPI report revived rate-hike concerns, showing that macro pressure can still weigh on the stock at times. Article Title

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $488.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Mizuho boosted their target price on Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 target price on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $443.71.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $194.03 billion, a PE ratio of 33.61 and a beta of 2.13. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $447.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $307.91.

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

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of Western Digital 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 sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 in the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the third quarter valued at approximately $221,800,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the first quarter valued at approximately $350,403,000. 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.