Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Down 8.4% Following Analyst Downgrade

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price was down 8.4% during trading on Tuesday after Fox Advisors downgraded the stock from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating. The stock traded as low as $653.00 and last traded at $670.75. 12,473,982 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 39% from the average daily volume of 8,983,244 shares. The stock had previously closed at $732.62.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Barclays raised their price objective on Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $450.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, 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 transaction of $396,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 4,674 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $443.19, for a total value of $2,071,470.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 90,041 shares in the company, valued at $39,905,270.79. This trade represents a 4.93% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital’s underlying fundamentals remain solid, with its latest quarterly results showing strong revenue growth, margins above 50%, and guidance that points to continued expansion.
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street has remained constructive, with recent analyst action including higher price targets from JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, reinforcing the long-term AI/storage growth narrative.
• Neutral Sentiment: The stock has been a major beneficiary of the memory-chip rally this month, so some pullback after a sharp run-up may simply reflect profit-taking and a cooldown in sentiment.
• Negative Sentiment: A broad selloff in tech and memory stocks is pressuring WDC, as investors worry about stretched AI valuations and weaker near-term chip sentiment. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Western Digital is also facing overhang from recent share-exchange transactions tied to its SanDisk stake, which may have raised near-term dilution or supply concerns. Article Title

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 4th quarter valued at $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its position in Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $221,800,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter valued at about $350,403,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital Stock Down 8.4%

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $495.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $332.35. The firm has a market cap of $231.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.04 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 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.