Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading 11.2% Higher After Analyst Upgrade

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price traded up 11.2% during mid-day trading on Monday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $610.00 to $732.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Western Digital traded as high as $652.98 and last traded at $651.88. 11,200,649 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 22% from the average daily volume of 9,180,976 shares. The stock had previously closed at $586.45.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on WDC. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Fox Advisors cut Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. UBS Group increased their price target on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $493.52.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at $47,366,060.96. This trade represents a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% 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 a total of 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its price target on Western Digital to $732 from $610 and kept a buy rating, implying meaningful upside versus the current share price. Bank of America raises Western Digital target
• Positive Sentiment: Melius Research upgraded Western Digital to strong-buy, reinforcing the view that the stock still has room to run on improving fundamentals. Melius upgrades Western Digital to strong-buy
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts are reassessing fair value higher as AI-related storage demand and HDD pricing trends improve the outlook; one estimate was reset to $584.79 from $518.26. Fair value boost for Western Digital
• Positive Sentiment: Earlier coverage highlighted Western Digital as a momentum name in AI infrastructure, with options flow and analyst sentiment leaning bullish. Analysts see upside in Western Digital
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital’s recent strength has been supported by technical momentum, with the stock trading well above its 200-day moving average. Why Western Digital stock was gaining Tuesday
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the bullish analyst notes, WDC is being hit by a sector-wide selloff as memory stocks and the broader Nasdaq/semiconductor group pull back. Memory stocks pull back with the Nasdaq

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its position in Western Digital by 4,070.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Avion Wealth increased 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 valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, BOKF NA boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 268 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $206.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.72 and a beta of 2.13. The business has a fifty day moving average of $529.13 and a 200-day moving average of $352.48.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.36 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 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. Investors 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 yield of 0.1%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s payout ratio 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.