Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 4% – Should You Buy?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s stock price traded up 4% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $470.00 and last traded at $468.88. 5,020,164 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 43% from the average session volume of 8,829,222 shares. The stock had previously closed at $450.75.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital disclosed exchange agreements covering approximately $191 million of 3.00% convertible notes due in 2028. The transaction, expected to close on or after September 2, would reduce outstanding debt and is being viewed as active liability management, although issuing shares could cause some dilution. What’s Going on With Western Digital Stock on Wednesday?
• Positive Sentiment: Investors continue to see strong AI, hyperscale-cloud and data-center storage demand as a major growth driver. Western Digital recently reported quarterly revenue of $3.75 billion, up 43.8% year over year, and adjusted EPS of $3.56, above expectations; management also projected roughly $4.1 billion in next-quarter revenue. Western Digital Rises as Investors Weigh Fresh Debt Exchange Against Strong AI Storage Demand
• Positive Sentiment: A hammer chart pattern suggests the recent decline may have found technical support. Combined with upward earnings-estimate revisions, the signal has encouraged investors to anticipate a potential near-term recovery. Western Digital May Find a Bottom Soon
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital is assessing potential exposure to new U.S. sanctions involving Iran and its trading partners. Possible effects include higher compliance costs, supply-chain disruptions or altered shipment routes, but no specific financial impact has been announced. Western Digital Is Assessing New Iran Sanctions Exposure
• Negative Sentiment: The convertible-note exchange includes common stock, creating potential dilution. In addition, reports of extensive insider selling and the possibility of further investor rotation out of AI and memory-related stocks remain risks to sentiment. Western Digital Debt Exchange and Insider Activity

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WDC shares. Citigroup cut their price objective on Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $534.56.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $161.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 2.14. The business has a fifty day moving average of $543.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $436.75.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued 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 company had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The company’s revenue was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 114,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,663,290.57. The trade was a 0.70% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This trade represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 25,384 shares of company stock valued at $11,753,463 in the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in Western Digital by 64,424.3% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 338,388,746 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $216,135,660,000 after buying an additional 337,864,310 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,884,000 after acquiring an additional 384,103 shares in the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 70.4% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $512,107,000 after acquiring an additional 1,228,661 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.