Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Has Average Price Target of $618.63 According to Analysts

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-eight brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $607.04.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WDC. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on Western Digital from $660.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Western Digital from $525.00 to $470.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 12th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $800.00 to $740.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Robert W. Baird set a $630.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Western Digital from $676.00 to $643.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday.

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares in the company, valued at $256,287,591.02. This trade represents a 3.36% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a 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 L. Tregillis sold 1,007 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $478.36, for a total value of $481,708.52. Following the transaction, the insider owned 112,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $53,650,465.80. This represents a 0.89% 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. Insiders sold 24,629 shares of company stock valued at $11,033,404 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,602,927,000. Anther Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $901,601,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 2nd quarter valued at about $885,565,000. Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at about $350,403,000. Finally, Trivest Advisors Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at about $627,606,000. 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: Morgan Stanley said it expects Western Digital to deliver strong quarterly results and better-than-expected guidance, despite recent worries about AI financing and competition. The firm’s analyst called Western Digital and Seagate Technology “aggressive buys,” supporting the broader rebound in storage stocks. Seagate, Western Digital stocks gain as this analyst sees 80% upside
• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is viewed as an AI infrastructure beneficiary because data centers require substantial hard-drive capacity. Investor attention is rising ahead of earnings, which could validate whether AI-driven storage demand is translating into stronger results and guidance. META Earnings & 2 Other AI-Related Reports to Watch This Week
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its Seagate price target but lowered its Western Digital target to $643 from $676. The revised target still implies substantial potential upside, but the reduction suggests analysts see some uncertainty in the near-term outlook. Seagate and Western Digital Stocks Sank Last Week
• Negative Sentiment: Jim Cramer warned that Western Digital and SanDisk could be among the most vulnerable stocks if data-center capacity expansion slows. Because recent profits and valuation enthusiasm are closely tied to AI infrastructure spending, any pullback could pressure earnings expectations and the share price. Cramer warns SanDisk and Western Digital are worst stocks if data center capacity shrinks

Western Digital Trading Up 3.4%

NASDAQ WDC opened at $364.32 on Wednesday. Western Digital has a 12 month low of $117.23 and a 12 month high of $799.87. The stock has a market cap of $136.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.05, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 2.11. The company’s 50 day moving average is $439.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $479.46.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The data storage provider reported $3.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. Western Digital had a net margin of 72.95% and a return on equity of 48.15%. The company’s revenue was up 43.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. Western Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.850-4.150 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 19.65 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 2.48%.

Western Digital Company Profile

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.