Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 5.8% – Time to Buy?

Posted by Geri Gentry on May 23rd, 2026

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report)’s stock price traded up 5.8% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $487.29 and last traded at $486.46. 4,975,176 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 45% from the average session volume of 9,083,321 shares. The stock had previously closed at $459.62.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WDC. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Barclays increased their price target on Western Digital from $405.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $395.83.

Check Out Our Latest Report on Western Digital

Western Digital Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $166.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.91 and a beta of 2.10. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $373.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $268.41.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS 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 company 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 company’s quarterly revenue 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. Equities research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.99%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total transaction of $2,743,105.88. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,137,796.14. This represents a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 53,785 shares of company stock worth $18,097,954. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its stake in Western Digital by 551.4% during the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Westfuller Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Avion Wealth increased its position 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 worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Planning Group LLC increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 207.0% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 264 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Western Digital

(Get Free Report)

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.