Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 3.2% – Here’s What Happened

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price dropped 3.2% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $501.27 and last traded at $527.22. Approximately 8,240,419 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 8% from the average daily volume of 8,920,299 shares. The stock had previously closed at $544.84.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital enters the report with favorable operating momentum, including strong prior-quarter results, improving revenue and gross-margin guidance, reduced leverage, and indications that portions of its storage capacity are sold out. These trends could support an upbeat outlook for enterprise storage and AI infrastructure demand. Western Digital: Sold Out, De-Levered, And Walking Into FQ4 With Momentum
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly optimistic, with recent coverage highlighting Western Digital’s earnings-surprise history and exposure to the ongoing AI-related buildout. Reported price targets range widely, including targets above the current trading level, although the median target cited by QuiverQuant is more modest. Are Wall Street Analysts Predicting Western Digital Stock Will Climb or Sink?
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are watching quarterly revenue, gross margin, earnings, enterprise-storage demand, and management’s forecast for the next quarter. Results that merely meet elevated expectations may not be enough to extend the rally. Western Digital Q4 Earnings Today – 3 Things Investors Are Watching
• Negative Sentiment: The recent weakness reflects pre-earnings de-risking and a broader cooling in memory and storage stocks after an exceptional run. Valuation concerns, sector volatility, and competition fears are encouraging some investors to avoid holding the shares through the earnings event. Western Digital Slides as Investors Appear to De-Risk Ahead of Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Insider-trading data cited in recent coverage shows substantially more selling than buying by company insiders over the past six months. This is not necessarily a fundamental signal, but it adds to investor caution after the stock’s large advance. Western Digital Stock Is Up 222% YTD

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on WDC shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $685.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $520.32.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $189.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.75 and a beta of 2.14. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $569.37 and its 200 day moving average is $413.52.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total transaction of $427,941.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at $60,663,290.57. The trade was a 0.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 5,093 shares of company stock worth $2,751,337 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after acquiring an additional 3,019 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Western Digital by 229.7% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth about $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 55.3% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 845 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.