Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 6.3% – Here’s What Happened

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares traded down 6.3% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $585.80 and last traded at $598.37. Approximately 7,788,814 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 15% from the average daily volume of 9,183,527 shares. The stock had previously closed at $638.72.

Key Headlines 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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Fox Advisors cut Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $493.52.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $206.25 billion, a PE ratio of 35.72 and a beta of 2.13. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $529.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $352.48.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3.58%.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $246,342,096. This represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $34,244,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. boosted its stake in Western Digital by 399.8% in the 3rd quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,900,000 after purchasing an additional 25,987 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 75.4% during the 4th quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,778,000 after buying an additional 4,068 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,270,000. Finally, WESPAC Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $793,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.