Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 1.8% on Analyst Downgrade

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price was down 1.8% on Monday after Fox Advisors downgraded the stock from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating. The company traded as low as $726.60 and last traded at $732.62. 13,052,192 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 45% from the average daily volume of 8,976,504 shares. The stock had previously closed at $746.23.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their price objective on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $450.46.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total value of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is benefiting from a sector-wide surge in memory and storage names, with traders buying ahead of Micron’s upcoming earnings and betting that AI-related demand will keep boosting the group. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan raised its price target on Western Digital to $650 from $530 and maintained an Overweight rating, citing higher earnings forecasts. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlighted Western Digital’s strong revenue growth and its role as a key hard-disk and storage supplier for AI infrastructure, which is helping keep investor sentiment constructive. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital remains a heavily watched momentum name, with Zacks noting unusual investor attention rather than a specific new catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Fox Advisors downgraded Western Digital from Overweight to Equal Weight, which may temper some of the bullish momentum. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One technical note warned the shares are extremely overbought, suggesting the stock could be vulnerable to a pullback after its strong run. Article Title

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $34,244,000. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. lifted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 25,987 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 75.4% in the 4th quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,778,000 after acquiring an additional 4,068 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,270,000. Finally, WESPAC Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $793,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $252.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.74 and a beta of 2.13. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $487.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $328.32.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

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.