Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Climb 1% – Time to Buy?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares shot up 1% on Friday. The company traded as high as $398.28 and last traded at $397.28. Approximately 7,007,347 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 19% from the average session volume of 8,641,656 shares. The stock had previously closed at $393.31.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Demand from hyperscale data centers and AI workloads continues to support Western Digital’s storage business. Analysts believe disciplined industry supply could preserve favorable supply-demand conditions and sustain earnings momentum. Can Supply Discipline Sustain AI Storage Momentum for Western Digital
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary from Jim Cramer highlights that Western Digital and Seagate have refrained from aggressively adding capacity. That restraint could support pricing and margins if AI-driven storage demand remains strong. Seagate and Western Digital Capacity Strategy
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital’s long-term performance has benefited from the shift toward AI storage, but its outlook depends heavily on a concentrated customer base; one customer group reportedly accounts for 89% of revenue. That concentration increases both growth potential and execution risk. Western Digital’s AI-Driven Transformation
• Neutral Sentiment: A product comparison of Samsung’s 9100 Pro and Western Digital’s WD Black SN8100 keeps competition in consumer solid-state storage in focus, but it does not provide a clear new catalyst for WDC’s shares. Samsung 9100 Pro vs WD Black SN8100
• Negative Sentiment: Toshiba’s plan to nearly double HDD output for AI data centers raises the risk that additional industry supply could weaken pricing and challenge Western Digital’s currently elevated valuation. Is Western Digital Fully Valued After Toshiba’s HDD Expansion Plan?
• Negative Sentiment: Deep discounts on a WD 20TB desktop hard drive may raise concerns about promotional pricing, inventory levels or weaker consumer HDD demand, although the offer could also be retailer-specific. WD 20TB Desktop Hard Drive Discount

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on WDC shares. 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. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on Western Digital from $590.00 to $770.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. China Renaissance upped their price objective on Western Digital from $545.00 to $655.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Western Digital from $650.00 to $615.00 in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their target price on Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $620.67.

Western Digital Stock Up 1.0%

The stock has a market capitalization of $148.71 billion, a PE ratio of 16.41, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 2.11. The business’s 50-day moving average is $459.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $474.72.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.The company had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.66 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 2.48%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total value of $481,708.52. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 112,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,650,465.80. This represents a 0.89% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 25,437 shares of company stock valued at $11,461,345 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of WDC. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth about $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd purchased a new position in Western Digital during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the second quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC lifted its position in Western Digital by 45.5% in the second quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) develops, manufactures and supplies data-storage products and solutions. The company’s portfolio is centered on hard disk drives (HDDs) used in cloud and enterprise data centers, personal computers, network-attached storage systems and other applications that require high-capacity data storage.

Western Digital markets products under brands including Western Digital, WD and Ultrastar. Its offerings include enterprise and data-center HDDs, storage products for business and consumer systems, and related technologies designed to help organizations store, manage and access large volumes of data.

Founded in 1970, Western Digital has evolved from a maker of electronic components into a global data-storage company.