Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 4.3% – What’s Next?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price was down 4.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $612.41 and last traded at $641.7280. 11,686,983 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 29% from the average daily volume of 9,028,437 shares. The stock had previously closed at $670.75.

More Western Digital News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Micron’s strong earnings and bullish outlook reinforced the AI memory shortage narrative, which has been a major tailwind for Western Digital and the broader storage complex. Western Digital Stock And Seagate Get Boost From Big Micron Earnings Beat
• Positive Sentiment: Apple’s reported concern about rising memory costs adds another signal that supply remains tight, supporting the idea that Western Digital can benefit from stronger pricing and demand. Apple Just Handed These 4 Memory Stocks Their Best News of the Year
• Neutral Sentiment: Roundhill’s memory ETF coverage highlighted that SK Hynix plans to list on Nasdaq on July 10, another reminder that investor attention is clustering around the memory-chip space. Is the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) a Buy Before July 10?
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and market commentary continue to frame WDC as a leveraged beneficiary of AI storage demand, but also note that the stock has already had a massive run, which may lead to choppy trading around pullbacks. Micron’s Robust Q3 Results Raise Investor Attention on These 3 Stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Friday’s sector-wide selloff hit memory and storage stocks after the post-earnings rally cooled, with WDC giving back some of its recent gains alongside Micron and SanDisk. MU, SNDK, WDC: 3 Key Reasons Why Memory Stocks Are Falling Today

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WDC has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Fox Advisors lowered Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Western Digital from $325.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup lifted their target price on Western Digital from $500.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Western Digital from $450.00 to $620.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $450.46.

Western Digital Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $513.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $342.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $202.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.98 and a beta of 2.13.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.36 EPS. The firm’s 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. As a group, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 432 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $545.60, for a total transaction of $235,699.20. Following the sale, the insider owned 116,643 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,640,420.80. The trade was a 0.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 sold 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 9.2% in the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 357 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 33.3% in the first quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 132 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its position in Western Digital by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 4,707 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $811,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 3,782 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,023,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Finally, Quadcap Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Quadcap Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.