Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Up 3.5% – Still a Buy?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price rose 3.5% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $483.66 and last traded at $480.0860. Approximately 7,525,233 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 19% from the average daily volume of 9,321,887 shares. The stock had previously closed at $463.91.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street analysts remain upbeat on Western Digital, with firms lifting price targets and Zacks upgrading the stock to Strong Buy, signaling rising confidence in demand trends and earnings momentum. Zacks Research upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage is highlighting Western Digital as a beneficiary of the AI memory and data-center storage supercycle, with demand for high-capacity storage solutions expected to stay elevated. Motley Fool article
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s recent earnings beat, raised guidance, and multiple target increases from analysts continue to support the stock’s sharp year-to-date gain and keep momentum investors engaged. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital also announced progress on simplifying its structure by unwinding its remaining Sandisk stake through share swaps and future distributions, which may help investors better value WDC as a more focused storage pure play. Yahoo Finance share swap article

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WDC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $335.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $395.83.

Western Digital Trading Up 3.5%

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $325.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $242.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $165.48 billion, a PE ratio of 28.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during 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 quarterly revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 2.99%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. The trade was a 7.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total transaction of $2,743,105.88. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. This trade represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 53,679 shares of company stock valued at $18,049,314 in the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 33.3% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 132 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 4,707 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $811,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 3,782 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,023,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quadcap Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $346,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.