Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) shares shot up 4.8% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $799.87 and last traded at $746.23. Approximately 16,539,503 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 85% from the average session volume of 8,937,366 shares. The stock had previously closed at $712.13.
Western Digital News Summary
Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is benefiting from surging demand tied to AI data centers and cloud storage, which is boosting investor confidence in the company’s earnings outlook. Western Digital stock surges on AI demand; Morgan Stanley bullish on WDC
- Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley raised its view on WDC, reinforcing the idea that the stock still has room to run after the recent rally. Morgan Stanley Raises Price Target on Western Digital (WDC). Here is Why
- Positive Sentiment: The company’s earnings were said to nearly double on strong AI and cloud demand, which supports the recent move up in the shares. Western Digital Earnings Nearly Double on AI, Cloud Demand
- Positive Sentiment: Apple’s comments about unavoidable memory price hikes helped lift the broader memory/storage group, including WDC, by improving the pricing backdrop for the industry. SanDisk Jumps 11%, Western Digital Rises 7% After Apple Flags “Unavoidable” Memory Price Hikes
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
WDC has been the subject of several research reports. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Western Digital from $550.00 to $685.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $530.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $500.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Western Digital presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $450.46.
Western Digital Price Performance
The stock has a market cap of $257.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.55 and a beta of 2.13. The company’s 50-day moving average is $487.12 and its 200-day moving average is $327.17.
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.
Western Digital Increases Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. This is a positive change from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 3.58%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In related news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $411.84, for a total transaction of $8,236,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 598,150 shares in the company, valued at $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062,813.56. This trade represents a 16.12% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 29,322 shares of company stock valued at $12,768,550 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Trading of Western Digital
Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 30 shares during the period. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 33.3% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC now owns 132 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Western Digital by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 4,707 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $811,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Quadcap Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. 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.
See Also
- Five stocks we like better than Western Digital
- Aehr Spikes on New Order, But Has Stock Gotten Ahead of Itself?
- Rackspace’s AI Land Grab: Plugging Into the Next Compute Boom
- Satellogic Is Tiny But Its Revenue Growth Is Hard to Ignore
- Why Kroger’s Pullback Could Be a Gift for Patient Investors
Receive News & Ratings for Western Digital Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Western Digital and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
