Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Up 1.5% – Still a Buy?

Posted by Brian Himes on Aug 20th, 2026

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report)’s stock price rose 1.5% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $477.28 and last traded at $469.05. 5,081,572 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 43% from the average daily volume of 8,913,486 shares. The stock had previously closed at $462.09.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on WDC shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Zacks Research raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $534.56.

View Our Latest Report on Western Digital

Western Digital Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $555.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $431.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $161.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.37 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 48.15% and a net margin of 72.95%.Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 43.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.66 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 2.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $256,287,591.02. This trade represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,903 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. The trade was a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 24,987 shares of company stock worth $11,602,097. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 71.4% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 230,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $147,275,000 after purchasing an additional 96,078 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth about $2,270,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 33.6% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,122,095 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $193,303,000 after buying an additional 282,156 shares during the last quarter. CloudAlpha Capital Management Limited Hong Kong bought a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 4th quarter worth about $20,889,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 145.8% during the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 5,950 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,025,000 after buying an additional 3,529 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Company Profile

(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.