Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Gets Price Target Cut from TD Cowen

Posted by Brenda Bartman on Oct 26th, 2026

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Free Report) had its price objective trimmed by TD Cowen from $540.00 to $430.00 in a report released on Friday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $625.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $650.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $360.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Melius Research set a $1,050.00 target price on shares of Western Digital and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $591.04.

Check Out Our Latest Report on WDC

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $343.67 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $128.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.34, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 2.11. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $432.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $480.74. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $121.85 and a 12-month high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $0.53. Western Digital had a return on equity of 55.62% and a net margin of 69.20%. The firm had revenue of $4.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.78 EPS. Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 55.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 19.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 4th will be issued a $0.1750 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. This is a boost from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 4th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2.33%.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total transaction of $825,466.65. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 80,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,052,185.77. The trade was a 2.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total value of $481,708.52. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 112,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,650,465.80. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 25,436 shares of company stock valued at $11,340,064 over the last quarter. 0.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Apollon Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Western Digital by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,677 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,852,000 after acquiring an additional 1,050 shares in the last quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Western Digital by 27.0% during the third quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC now owns 235 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $107,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 5.2% in the third quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,936 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,334,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Dedeker Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 0.4% in the third quarter. Dedeker Financial LLC now owns 8,238 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,744,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brandywine Oak Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Western Digital by 25.4% in the third quarter. Brandywine Oak Private Wealth LLC now owns 627 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $285,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

About Western Digital

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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.