Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading 3.5% Higher – Still a Buy?

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) were up 3.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $452.00 and last traded at $450.75. 4,540,258 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 49% from the average session volume of 8,853,004 shares. The stock had previously closed at $435.38.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts comparing Western Digital with Seagate Technology and Teradata view WDC as the stronger AI-storage opportunity, citing hyperscale data-center demand, rising storage requirements, improving margins and robust cash generation. Western Digital vs. Teradata: Which AI Data Stock Has Stronger Upside?
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s latest quarterly results provide fundamental support: earnings of $3.56 per share exceeded estimates, revenue reached $3.75 billion and sales increased 43.8% year over year. Investors are also watching the planned 40TB drive and HAMR product ramp as potential fiscal 2027 growth drivers. WDC’s Strong Q4 Raises the Stakes for Its Fiscal 2027 Product Ramp
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks identifies WDC as a top-ranked growth stock, while the brokerage consensus remains “Moderate Buy,” with several analysts maintaining substantially higher price targets. Western Digital Is a Top-Ranked Growth Stock
• Neutral Sentiment: Management will present at Citi’s Global TMT Conference on September 9. The event could offer updates on demand, pricing and the product ramp, but the announcement included no new guidance. WD to Participate in Upcoming Investor Conference
• Neutral Sentiment: Director Cynthia Tregillis sold 919 shares in two transactions under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. The sales reduced her holdings only slightly and are therefore a limited signal about management’s outlook. SEC insider transaction filing
• Negative Sentiment: Investors have rotated out of high-performing AI, semiconductor and memory stocks ahead of Nvidia’s earnings report, pressuring WDC despite healthy underlying storage demand. Memory and Semiconductor Stocks Fall
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Apple may source memory chips from Chinese suppliers have raised concerns about competition and pricing. WDC’s premium valuation, cloud-customer concentration and reliance on successful product execution remain additional risks. Memory Stocks Slide on Apple Supplier Report

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $676.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Fox Advisors downgraded shares of Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Up 3.5%

The firm has a market cap of $155.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.62 and a beta of 2.14. The business’s 50 day moving average is $547.88 and its 200-day moving average is $435.48.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In related news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was 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 owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 684 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $446.17, for a total value of $305,180.28. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 112,146 shares in the company, valued at $50,036,180.82. This represents a 0.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 25,598 shares of company stock valued at $11,868,944 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd bought a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 45.5% during the 2nd quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. 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.