Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Announces Q2 2027 Earnings Guidance

Posted by Brian Himes on Oct 24th, 2026

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) issued an update on its second quarter 2027 earnings guidance on Friday. The company provided EPS guidance of 5.600-6.000 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 4.720. The company issued revenue guidance of $5.0 billion-$5.2 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $4.5 billion.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on WDC shares. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Western Digital from $540.00 to $430.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings cut Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price objective on Western Digital from $900.00 to $625.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Western Digital from $730.00 to $450.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $584.00.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on WDC

Western Digital Trading Down 3.0%

Shares of WDC stock opened at $343.67 on Friday. Western Digital has a 1 year low of $121.85 and a 1 year high of $799.87. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $432.18 and its 200-day moving average is $479.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $128.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.34, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 2.11.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $0.53. The business had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 69.20% and a return on equity of 56.91%. Western Digital’s revenue was up 55.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.78 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 19.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 4th will be given a $0.1750 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 4th. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 2.48%.

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 stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total transaction of $8,899,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at $256,287,591.02. The trade was a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Cynthia Tregillis sold 807 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $380.00, for a total value of $306,660.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 108,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $41,392,640. The trade was a 0.74% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital News Summary

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

Positive Sentiment: Western Digital reported fiscal Q1 2027 adjusted EPS of $4.64, above the roughly $4.09–$4.11 consensus, while revenue rose 55.5% year over year to $4.38 billion. Growth was driven by strong cloud and data-center demand, higher-capacity drives and improved pricing. Western Digital Q1 earnings and revenues beat estimates
Positive Sentiment: Management issued substantially stronger-than-expected fiscal Q2 guidance, calling for revenue of approximately $5.0 billion to $5.2 billion and adjusted EPS of $5.60 to $6.00, versus consensus estimates near $4.5 billion and $4.72, respectively. Western Digital forecasts strong second-quarter growth
Positive Sentiment: AI-related storage demand remains durable, with management citing growing requirements from inference, robotics and long-term data retention. Analysts and industry commentators expect HDDs to remain an important, cost-effective storage layer for data centers, potentially supporting demand visibility into 2030–2031. Western Digital CEO discusses durable AI storage demand
Positive Sentiment: Western Digital generated about $1.38 billion in free cash flow and increased its quarterly dividend 16.7% to $0.175 per share. JPMorgan also raised its price target to $650 and maintained an overweight rating. Western Digital Q1 revenue and dividend update
Neutral Sentiment: Other analysts remained bullish but reduced some price targets, reflecting elevated expectations and uncertainty around the pace of future growth. TD Cowen, for example, lowered its target to $430 while retaining a buy rating; Rosenblatt and Cantor Fitzgerald also cut targets but remained positive.
Negative Sentiment: The stock’s strong results were not enough to overcome a broad sell-off in AI, memory and technology shares. Investors are questioning whether hyperscaler capital spending can remain elevated and whether Western Digital’s unusually strong HDD pricing and margins are sustainable.
Negative Sentiment: Higher planned capital expenditures, possible industry supply increases, inventory concerns and execution risks surrounding the HAMR technology transition are weighing on sentiment. Management also acknowledged that HDD price growth could eventually moderate. Western Digital faces capex and supply concerns
Negative Sentiment: A disclosed insider sale of 807 shares worth approximately $306,660 added a modest sentiment overhang, although it was conducted under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and represented only a small portion of the insider’s holdings. SEC insider transaction filing

Western Digital Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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