Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Trading Down 9.2% – Should You Sell?

Posted by Francis Steltz on Jul 16th, 2026

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report)’s share price was down 9.2% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $453.94 and last traded at $466.81. Approximately 10,480,218 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 16% from the average daily volume of 9,033,521 shares. The stock had previously closed at $513.84.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

Positive Sentiment: Multiple recent articles highlight Western Digital as a beneficiary of strong AI-driven storage demand, with improving revenue, expanding margins, and earnings growth that could support further upside. Article Title
Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly constructive on WDC, with mostly Buy/Overweight ratings and several recent price targets implying additional upside, reinforcing the longer-term bullish case for the stock. Article Title
Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital’s upcoming fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results on August 5 are now a near-term focal point for investors, which can keep the stock volatile as traders position ahead of earnings. Article Title
Negative Sentiment: WDC is under pressure from a broader selloff in memory and storage stocks, with peers like Micron, SanDisk, and Seagate also declining as investors take profits and reassess the durability of the AI-chip rally. Article Title
Negative Sentiment: Fresh concern over competition from China’s CXMT IPO filing has also weighed on the storage-memory group, adding another reason for investors to sell the stock. Article Title

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on WDC. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $610.00 to $732.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $560.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 12th. 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.32.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on Western Digital

Western Digital Stock Down 9.2%

The company has a market capitalization of $160.90 billion, a PE ratio of 27.87 and a beta of 2.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $560.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $381.93.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.58%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 598,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in shares of Western Digital by 7.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,698,000 after buying an additional 3,019 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 229.7% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 967 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $307,000. Cresset Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $292,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 55.3% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,374 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $152,000 after acquiring an additional 845 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.