Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Up 6.4% After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• Western Digital shares rose 6.4% after JPMorgan Chase lifted its price target from $530 to $650 and kept an overweight rating. The stock traded as high as $572.29, well above its previous close of $529.29.
• Several other analysts have recently turned more bullish on WDC, including price target increases from Robert W. Baird, Jefferies, and Wells Fargo. Overall, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy with a $443.71 average price target.
• The company has also been supported by strong fundamentals and shareholder returns, including better-than-expected quarterly earnings, raised dividend, and a planned $4 billion buyback. Market optimism is being further fueled by demand tied to AI storage and Western Digital’s storage product lineup.

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 6.4% during mid-day trading on Friday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $530.00 to $650.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Western Digital traded as high as $572.29 and last traded at $562.93. 6,082,589 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 31% from the average session volume of 8,760,891 shares. The stock had previously closed at $529.29.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on WDC. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $488.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price objective on Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $443.71.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total value of $1,376,694.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. This represents a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at $63,640,420.80. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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 ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its price target on Western Digital from $530 to $650 and kept an Overweight rating, signaling more upside from current levels. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: The stock is benefiting from a broader AI storage rally, with traders bidding up memory and disk-drive names on expectations that data-center demand will keep growing. 24/7 Wall St.
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital also drew attention for a share exchange plan involving SanDisk shares, which helped spark buying interest and reinforced the market’s focus on its storage assets. Blockonomi
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage highlighted Western Digital’s strong free cash flow, higher dividend, and $4 billion buyback plan, which supports the bull case for shareholder returns and long-term growth. Zacks
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s AI-focused storage products showcased at Computex add to optimism that WDC can capture more of the growing AI infrastructure spend. Zacks
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital also announced enterprise hard drive upgrades aimed at improving resistance to quantum attacks, a longer-term product/security update with limited immediate stock impact. heise online

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Avion Wealth boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 163.8% in the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new position in Western Digital during the first quarter worth approximately $32,000. Swiss RE Ltd. purchased a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, BOKF NA boosted its position in Western Digital by 6,700.0% during the third quarter. BOKF NA now owns 272 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company's stock.

Western Digital Stock Up 6.4%

The company has a market cap of $194.03 billion, a PE ratio of 33.61 and a beta of 2.13. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $441.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $306.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.Western Digital's revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 is an increase from Western Digital's previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. Western Digital's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.58%.

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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