Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 1.2% – Should You Buy?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) traded up 1.2% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $295.43 and last traded at $285.99. 8,012,384 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 26% from the average session volume of 10,756,720 shares. The stock had previously closed at $282.58.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: AI-driven “memory supercycle” thesis — smart money is rotating into memory names as AI infrastructure demand creates historic needs for speed and capacity, supporting WDC’s secular demand outlook. The Memory Supercycle Is Here—2 Winners From 1 Breakup
• Positive Sentiment: Large buyback — WDC authorized an additional $4.0 billion share repurchase (bringing total remaining capacity to ~$4.484B), which reduces share count and signals management confidence. This is a key near-term driver for EPS accretion and sentiment. 3 Massive Buybacks That Map the Market’s Mood in 2026 (WDC)
• Positive Sentiment: Margin improvement — WDC reported a 46.1% gross margin in fiscal Q2 (up ~770 bps YoY and 220 bps sequentially), showing the company is capturing pricing and mix benefits from a tight supply environment. Higher margins underpin profitability and valuation expansion. What’s Supporting Western Digital’s Gross Margin Momentum?
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support — Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $325 price target, providing additional broker support and implied upside from current levels. Wedbush Outperform Reaffirmation
• Positive Sentiment: Debt reduction — Western Digital completed redemption of its 2026 senior notes, tightening near-term liabilities and improving financial flexibility. That reduces refinancing risk and complements shareholder-return actions. Western Digital Completes Redemption of 2026 Senior Notes
• Neutral Sentiment: Context and momentum recap — Longer-form coverage (Forbes) highlights WDC’s ~500% multi‑year surge driven by AI demand, restructuring, and buybacks; useful for sentiment but largely descriptive rather than a fresh catalyst. What’s Behind The Incredible 500% Surge Of Western Digital Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector tailwinds — Coverage (The Motley Fool / CNBC mentions) reiterates an AI memory crunch benefiting suppliers like WDC; supports the structural bull case but is broader sector confirmation rather than company-specific news. The AI Memory Crunch Is Creating Winners and Losers. Here Are the Stocks to Buy

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on WDC shares. China Renaissance initiated coverage on Western Digital in a research report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 target price for the company. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. UBS Group set a $306.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $96.96 billion, a PE ratio of 28.69, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $207.80 and its 200 day moving average is $146.40.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 6,780 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.49, for a total transaction of $1,833,922.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 136,538 shares in the company, valued at $36,932,163.62. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total transaction of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $596,524.46. This trade represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. 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 the company. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the third quarter worth about $791,317,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $220,680,000. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its position in Western Digital by 4,923.9% during 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 buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the last quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in Western Digital by 1,926.3% during the 2nd quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 3,061,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares during the period. Finally, Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the 3rd quarter valued at $221,800,000. 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.