Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) shares were up 12.5% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $553.63 and last traded at $548.39. 7,301,481 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 19% from the average daily volume of 9,005,565 shares. The stock had previously closed at $487.42.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
WDC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Zacks Research raised shares of Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $560.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $520.32.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Western Digital
Western Digital Trading Up 1.5%
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a net margin of 55.29% and a return on equity of 42.95%. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.36 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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 analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current year.
Western Digital Increases Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 3.58%.
Insider Activity at Western Digital
In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total value of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. This trade represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 28,959 shares of company stock valued at $12,631,666 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,805,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $456,884,000 after purchasing an additional 384,103 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Western Digital by 70.4% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,972,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $512,107,000 after buying an additional 1,228,661 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,809,409 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $483,977,000 after buying an additional 159,167 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
About Western Digital
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.
Featured Stories
- Five stocks we like better than Western Digital
- Thematic Memory ETFs Give Investors a New Way to Play AI’s Hidden Bottleneck
- Rocket Lab Has Corrected Nearly 50%. Is It Still Too Expensive?
- Cybersecurity ETFs Are Rallying While AI Stocks Cool Off
- Could Truth API Become Trump Media’s First Meaningful Revenue Driver?
Receive News & Ratings for Western Digital Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Western Digital and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
