Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Zacks Research

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on the company. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price target on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Western Digital from $320.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, May 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Western Digital to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $285.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $395.83.

Western Digital Price Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $463.91 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $325.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $242.16. Western Digital has a 1 year low of $43.88 and a 1 year high of $483.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 2.10.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. Western Digital’s quarterly revenue 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. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 363 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.09, for a total value of $136,883.67. Following the sale, the insider owned 120,023 shares in the company, valued at $45,259,473.07. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total value of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $246,342,096. The trade was a 3.24% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 53,679 shares of company stock worth $18,049,314 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. ORG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Avion Wealth grew its position in shares of Western Digital by 163.8% during the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 182 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts are lifting forecasts and price targets on stronger AI/data?center storage demand; BofA and others raised targets and earnings estimates, supporting higher valuation expectations. BofA Lifts PT on Western Digital
• Positive Sentiment: Q3 beat and upward guidance momentum: recent earnings beats and upward EPS guidance revisions have prompted estimate upgrades from research shops (Zacks, others), underpinning bullish sentiment. Earnings Estimates Rising for WDC
• Positive Sentiment: Dividend increase: WDC raised its quarterly payout to $0.15 (20% hike), signaling confidence and attracting yield?sensitive and income?plus?growth investors, though yield remains small. Western Digital Dividend Increase
• Positive Sentiment: Share-swap to unwind SanDisk stake: WDC is exchanging Sandisk shares for WDC stock as it exits the remaining Sandisk position — a move that simplifies capital structure and may increase WDC’s pure?play valuation. Western Digital Share Swap
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector supply dynamics: reporting suggests AI-driven memory tightness could keep pricing elevated (benefit to margins), while some consumer SSD discounts appear episodic — supportive but mixed for near?term revenue mix. AI and Memory Prices
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: senior executives, including CEO Irving Tan and other officers, have sold shares recently (pre?arranged plans and filings). Markets often view sizeable or clustered insider sales as a negative near term catalyst. Irving Tan Share Sale

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.