Western Digital (WDC) Projected to Announce Earnings on Thursday

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) is expected to issue its Q1 2027 results after the market closes on Thursday, October 22nd. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $4.09 per share and revenue of $4.14 billion for the quarter. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. Interested persons may review the information on the company’s upcoming Q1 2027 earnings overview page for the latest details on the call scheduled for Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 4:30 PM ET.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.66 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect Western Digital to post $19.65 EPS for the current fiscal year and $33.66 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Western Digital Trading Up 3.4%

Shares of Western Digital stock opened at $364.32 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $439.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $479.46. The company has a market cap of $136.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 2.11. Western Digital has a 1 year low of $117.23 and a 1 year high of $799.87.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on WDC. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 5th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $540.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Summit Insights downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $607.04.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total transaction of $825,466.65. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 80,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,052,185.77. This represents a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 24,629 shares of company stock valued at $11,033,404 over the last 90 days. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley said it expects Western Digital to deliver strong quarterly results and better-than-expected guidance, despite recent worries about AI financing and competition. The firm’s analyst called Western Digital and Seagate Technology “aggressive buys,” supporting the broader rebound in storage stocks. Seagate, Western Digital stocks gain as this analyst sees 80% upside
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is viewed as an AI infrastructure beneficiary because data centers require substantial hard-drive capacity. Investor attention is rising ahead of earnings, which could validate whether AI-driven storage demand is translating into stronger results and guidance. META Earnings & 2 Other AI-Related Reports to Watch This Week
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its Seagate price target but lowered its Western Digital target to $643 from $676. The revised target still implies substantial potential upside, but the reduction suggests analysts see some uncertainty in the near-term outlook. Seagate and Western Digital Stocks Sank Last Week
• Negative Sentiment: Jim Cramer warned that Western Digital and SanDisk could be among the most vulnerable stocks if data-center capacity expansion slows. Because recent profits and valuation enthusiasm are closely tied to AI infrastructure spending, any pullback could pressure earnings expectations and the share price. Cramer warns SanDisk and Western Digital are worst stocks if data center capacity shrinks

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.