Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Up 9.8% – Still a Buy?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price shot up 9.8% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $594.83 and last traded at $592.0530. Approximately 1,553,141 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 9,118,579 shares. The stock had previously closed at $539.00.

Key Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America and other analysts turned more constructive on Western Digital, lifting price targets and reinforcing a Moderate Buy view, which is helping fuel buying interest in the stock. BofA Raises Price Target for Western Digital Corp. (WDC)
• Positive Sentiment: Memory stocks are broadly stronger, with Western Digital, SanDisk, and Micron all trading higher as UBS, Citi, and BofA grow more bullish on the memory cycle and demand outlook. SanDisk Rebounds 5%, Western Digital Gains 5%, Micron Climbs 3% as UBS, Citi, BofA Turn Bullish on Memory
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary is tying Western Digital’s strength to the AI trade regaining momentum, which is supporting optimism around high-performance storage demand. Western Digital, Sandisk, Micron, Nvidia, SpaceX, and More Stocks That Explain Today’s Market
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage also continues to rate Western Digital favorably overall, with the company receiving an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy,” which supports a constructive longer-term outlook. Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent commentary has also highlighted Western Digital as an AI beneficiary and discussed its post-rally outlook, but these pieces are more thematic than directly market-moving. Western Digital: Riding The AI Wave, Not Chasing It
• Negative Sentiment: Some recent analysis warned that Western Digital could fall if the AI trade cools, though that concern is being outweighed today by bullish analyst upgrades and stronger memory-sector sentiment. Western Digital Falls Over The Cliff As AI Trade Cools – What’s Next?

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WDC. UBS Group boosted their target price on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $493.52.

Western Digital Stock Up 7.8%

The company has a market cap of $200.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.62 and a beta of 2.11. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $539.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $360.51.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.36 EPS. The business’s quarterly 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. On average, equities analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 399.8% during the 3rd quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald L. P. now owns 32,487 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,900,000 after buying an additional 25,987 shares in the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 4,068 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,270,000. WESPAC Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $793,000. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Western Digital by 33.6% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,122,095 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $193,303,000 after acquiring an additional 282,156 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently 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.