Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 3% – Here’s What Happened

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s stock price traded down 3% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $270.56 and last traded at $282.25. 10,806,953 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 2% from the average session volume of 10,620,027 shares. The stock had previously closed at $290.95.

Trending Headlines about Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Board-authorized $4.0B additional buyback — signals management confidence and creates incremental buy demand for shares. Western Digital jumps as buyback expansion, AI-era HDD roadmap, and balance-sheet actions fuel bullish sentiment
• Positive Sentiment: AI/data?center HDD roadmap announced at Innovation Day — 40TB UltraSMR in customer qualification and roadmap to 100TB+ HAMR by 2029 underpin growth/capacity narratives for cloud and AI infrastructure. Western Digital jumps as buyback expansion, AI-era HDD roadmap, and balance-sheet actions fuel bullish sentiment
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/upside momentum — Zacks and other outlets have added WDC to top growth/momentum lists and many firms maintain buy/overweight ratings, supporting demand from discretionary and momentum investors. Best Growth Stocks to Buy for February 26th
• Neutral Sentiment: Consumer product branding move — WDC plans to relaunch the G-DRIVE consumer/external storage brand; positive for product visibility but a smaller near-term revenue driver vs. data?center initiatives. Western Digital to Relaunch G-DRIVE Brand
• Negative Sentiment: Citron Research short call on Sandisk/NAND cycle — public short note raises sector risk headlines and can pressure sentiment across storage names, including WDC because of SanDisk transaction links. Citron Short Call Tests Sandisk AI Storage Rally And NAND Cycle
• Negative Sentiment: Monetization / secondary sale of remaining SanDisk stake — moves to sell/exchange SanDisk shares (debt cleanup) reduce balance?sheet risk but create potential share supply and timing uncertainty that can be a near?term headwind. Western Digital Doubles Down On AI Data Centers And Cleaner Balance Sheet
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling filings (small blocks by Cynthia Tregillis) were reported this week — sizes are minor versus holdings but can amplify selling momentum on down days. Insider Selling: Western Digital Insider Sells 130 Shares

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on WDC. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Loop Capital lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. China Renaissance initiated coverage on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Down 3.0%

The company has a market cap of $95.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.31, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.80. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $234.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $163.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The firm’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total value of $5,108,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 67,392 shares of company stock worth $17,235,141 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the third quarter worth $791,317,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter valued at $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its position in Western Digital by 4,923.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,407,042 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $409,049,000 after purchasing an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP grew its position in Western Digital by 1,926.3% in the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc bought a new position in Western Digital during the third quarter valued at about $221,800,000. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Western Digital

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.