Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 3% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

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Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report)'s share price shot up 3% on Monday . The company traded as high as $540.21 and last traded at $526.93. 6,209,825 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 30% from the average session volume of 8,848,921 shares. The stock had previously closed at $511.72.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Mizuho reportedly raised its targets on Western Digital and peers, citing an AI-driven memory supply crunch that could last through 2027. That supports the view that pricing and demand for NAND/HDD storage could stay strong. Memory Stocks Sandisk (SNDK), Seagate (STX), and Western Digital (WDC) Surge on AI-Driven Demand Forecast
• Positive Sentiment: Shares are also benefiting from a broad rebound in memory and storage stocks, with Western Digital rising alongside Micron and SanDisk after last week’s selloff. The move appears tied to sector momentum rather than a company-specific setback. Micron Rockets 8%, Western Digital Surges 7%, SanDisk Pops 6% in Memory-Stock Snap-Back
• Positive Sentiment: Recent analyst commentary remains constructive, including Wells Fargo’s higher price target and multiple buy-equivalent ratings, which is helping reinforce bullish sentiment around the stock. Wells Fargo Raises Western Digital (WDC) Price Target by $75
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor chatter is also focused on Western Digital’s strong year-to-date gains and its exchange of convertible notes for cash and common shares. The debt management move may improve balance-sheet flexibility, but it also adds attention to share dilution. Western Digital Stock (WDC) Opinions on Strong Performance and Note Exchanges
• Neutral Sentiment: Articles questioning whether the stock is still a buy mainly reflect how far WDC has already run, but they do not point to any immediate deterioration in fundamentals. Up 981%, Is Western Digital Stock Still a Buy?

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WDC. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and set a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $488.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $433.29.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The stock's fifty day moving average is $422.06 and its 200 day moving average is $295.71. The stock has a market cap of $181.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.46 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.58%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business'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 value of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares of the company's stock, valued at $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. 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 have sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 8.8% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 6,297 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,703,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares during the period. Glenmede Trust Co. NA boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 6.4% in the first quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 6,613 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,789,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares during the period. Summitry LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the first quarter valued at approximately $231,000. Groupama Asset Managment boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 241.8% in the first quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 9,595 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,595,000 after purchasing an additional 6,788 shares during the period. Finally, BankChampaign National Association purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,128,000. Hedge funds and other 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.

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