Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report)’s stock price dropped 13.2% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $579.51 and last traded at $586.45. Approximately 23,264,743 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 154% from the average session volume of 9,168,826 shares. The stock had previously closed at $675.39.
Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital
Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Micron’s strong quarterly results reinforced the AI-driven memory shortage theme, which has lifted Western Digital along with other memory stocks. Western Digital Stock And Seagate Get Boost From Big Micron Earnings Beat
- Positive Sentiment: Analysts and commentators continue to highlight strong AI memory demand, rising estimate revisions, and favorable supply-demand dynamics for WDC. Micron’s Robust Q3 Results Raise Investor Attention on These 3 Stocks
- Neutral Sentiment: Reports of SK Hynix planning a Nasdaq listing on July 10 add more attention to the broader memory ecosystem, but the direct impact on WDC is unclear. Is the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) a Buy Before July 10?
- Negative Sentiment: After the sector’s big rally, memory and semiconductor stocks are pulling back as investors take profits and worry that memory and storage costs may have gotten ahead of fundamentals. MU, SNDK, WDC: 3 Key Reasons Why Memory Stocks Are Falling Today
- Negative Sentiment: Broader tech-sector weakness is weighing on WDC alongside other chip names, adding to the selloff in the group. Semiconductor stocks retreat over worries about memory costs
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several research firms recently issued reports on WDC. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $575.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings cut Western Digital from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group set a $575.00 target price on Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $450.46.
Western Digital Trading Down 13.2%
The stock has a market capitalization of $202.14 billion, a PE ratio of 35.01 and a beta of 2.13. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $518.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $344.63.
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.Western Digital’s revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.36 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.
Western Digital Increases Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were given 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 a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 3.58%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital
In other Western Digital news, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total value of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 116,643 shares in the company, valued at $63,640,420.80. This represents a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Insiders sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WDC. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter worth $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,923.9% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $409,049,000 after acquiring an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the second quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth about $221,800,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Western Digital during the 1st quarter worth about $350,403,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Western Digital Company Profile
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.
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