Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Down 9.2% - What's Next?

Key Points

• Western Digital shares fell 9.2% in Thursday trading, with the stock dipping as low as $453.94 before last trading at $466.81, well below its prior close of $513.84.
• Despite the selloff, the article highlights bullish long-term fundamentals: analysts remain mostly Buy-rated, and recent reports point to strong AI-driven storage demand, improving revenue, and expanding margins.
• Near-term volatility may stay elevated as investors wait for Western Digital’s fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results on August 5, while broader weakness in memory/storage stocks and China competition concerns also weigh on sentiment.

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) fell 9.2% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $453.94 and last traded at $466.81. Approximately 10,480,218 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 16% from the average daily volume of 9,033,521 shares. The stock had previously closed at $513.84.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple recent articles highlight Western Digital as a beneficiary of strong AI-driven storage demand, with improving revenue, expanding margins, and earnings growth that could support further upside. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly constructive on WDC, with mostly Buy/Overweight ratings and several recent price targets implying additional upside, reinforcing the longer-term bullish case for the stock. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital’s upcoming fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results on August 5 are now a near-term focal point for investors, which can keep the stock volatile as traders position ahead of earnings. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: WDC is under pressure from a broader selloff in memory and storage stocks, with peers like Micron, SanDisk, and Seagate also declining as investors take profits and reassess the durability of the AI-chip rally. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Fresh concern over competition from China’s CXMT IPO filing has also weighed on the storage-memory group, adding another reason for investors to sell the stock. Article Title

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America increased their target price on Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Rosenblatt Securities lifted 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. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 target price on shares of Western Digital and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Two research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $520.32.

Western Digital Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $160.90 billion, a PE ratio of 27.87 and a beta of 2.11. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $560.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $381.93.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The business's revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. 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 yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio is presently 3.58%.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,903 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at $63,640,420.80. This represents 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tema ETFs LLC boosted its position in shares of Western Digital by 10.6% in the 2nd quarter. Tema ETFs LLC now owns 6,805 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $4,346,000 after purchasing an additional 652 shares in the last quarter. Nolet Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $264,000. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB increased its position in Western Digital by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB now owns 12,394 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $7,916,000 after buying an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its stake in Western Digital by 71.4% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 230,578 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $147,275,000 after buying an additional 96,078 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $213,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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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