Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Up 2.1% – Time to Buy?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares were up 2.1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $505.99 and last traded at $487.42. 5,365,288 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 41% from the average session volume of 9,027,056 shares. The stock had previously closed at $477.22.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital surged along with other memory names after Morgan Stanley reportedly forecast memory prices could rise at least 25% from Q2 to Q3, improving the outlook for NAND and storage margins.
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple bullish pieces framed WDC as a top-ranked AI-related stock “on the dip,” suggesting the recent weakness may have created a buying opportunity for investors looking for short-term upside. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Western Digital and Kioxia have revived merger talks around flash-memory assets could lift sentiment by pointing to potential scale benefits and a stronger competitive position in NAND. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary also highlighted WDC as part of a broader AI-memory rebound, with investors rotating back into semiconductors ahead of major tech earnings.
• Neutral Sentiment: One article noted Western Digital had been down sharply over the prior month, so part of the move appears to be a bounce from oversold levels rather than a company-specific earnings catalyst.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price target on Western Digital from $685.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $520.32.

Western Digital Stock Up 1.4%

The stock has a market cap of $191.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.20 and a beta of 2.11. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $561.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $390.88.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through 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 firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 28,959 shares of company stock valued at $12,631,666 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth about $2,270,000. WESPAC Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at about $793,000. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 4,068 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Western Digital by 33.6% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,122,095 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $193,303,000 after purchasing an additional 282,156 shares during the period. Finally, CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth approximately $20,889,000. Institutional investors 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.