Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Climb 2.6% After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) traded up 2.6% on Tuesday after Zacks Research upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating. The stock traded as high as $359.98 and last traded at $347.35. Approximately 5,321,057 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 39% from the average daily volume of 8,655,580 shares. The stock had previously closed at $338.59.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on WDC. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $625.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Western Digital from $740.00 to $660.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Wall Street Zen cut Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 31st. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $660.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Wedbush upped their target price on Western Digital from $540.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.04.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Vidyadhara Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total value of $825,466.65. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 80,571 shares in the company, valued at $37,052,185.77. This represents a 2.18% 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 Tregillis sold 807 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $380.00, for a total value of $306,660.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 108,928 shares in the company, valued at $41,392,640. The trade was a 0.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 over the last 90 days. 0.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Margin growth and HDD demand support the outlook. Reports point to stronger pricing, demand for higher-capacity hard drives, AI-related storage needs and operational efficiencies as drivers of gross-margin expansion. Western Digital’s recent earnings beat and outlook were also cited as signs of potential further margin improvement. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded WDC to “strong buy” from “hold.” The upgrade provides a positive analyst signal amid the pullback. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation expectations were trimmed. One valuation model lowered its fair-value estimate to US$613.38 from US$650.67. The revised estimate remains above the reported share price, but the cut reflects questions about how much HDD strength is already priced in and uncertainty around customer capital spending and future supply. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: AI-policy headlines pressured storage and memory stocks. A lawmaker’s call for a pause in AI development added uncertainty about future data-center investment, extending a broader selloff in memory and storage shares. The reports describe a market reaction to the proposal, not an enacted policy. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain alert to valuation and execution risks. Commentary flagged premium-valuation concerns and the challenge of executing next-generation HAMR drive technology, tempering optimism about earnings and margins. Read More.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,602,927,000. Anther Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter worth about $901,601,000. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth $885,565,000. Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the first quarter valued at about $350,403,000. Finally, Trivest Advisors Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $627,606,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Trading Down 17.4%

The company’s 50-day moving average is $410.72 and its 200-day moving average is $418.77. The firm has a market cap of $100.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 2.27.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $0.53. Western Digital had a return on equity of 55.62% and a net margin of 69.20%. The business had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.14 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.78 earnings per share. Western Digital’s revenue was up 55.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 23.62 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.1750 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 4th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 2.72%.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.