Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 4% – Should You Sell?

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) traded down 4% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $281.68 and last traded at $284.67. 10,308,373 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 4% from the average session volume of 10,704,614 shares. The stock had previously closed at $296.56.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Big balance-sheet move — WDC is monetizing most of its remaining SanDisk stake via a secondary offering and a debt-for-equity exchange that should cut debt and improve financial flexibility, a clear deleveraging positive for the company. Western Digital to sell $3.17 billion stake in Sandisk
• Positive Sentiment: Strong demand outlook — Western Digital says 2026 hard-drive production is sold out as AI hyperscalers scramble for capacity, supporting revenue visibility and pricing power in enterprise/A.I. storage. Western Digital Sold Out All 2026 Hard Drive Production as AI Centers Scramble
• Positive Sentiment: Capital-structure simplification — WDC converted Series A convertible preferred shares, removing complexity from the cap table and reducing potential future dilution risk. Western Digital Converts Preferred Shares, Simplifying Capital Structure
• Neutral Sentiment: Retail/consumer promo — a deep-discount on a 16TB Elements external drive is consumer-facing news but is unlikely to move enterprise-focused revenue drivers materially. WD’s 16TB Elements External Hard Drive Delivers Maximum Storage at Minimum Cost
• Negative Sentiment: Heavy insider selling — disclosures show numerous insider sales (multiple executives) over recent months, which can raise concern about near-term sentiment even if sales were for diversification. Western Digital climbs as Sandisk stake sale boosts debt-reduction outlook
• Negative Sentiment: Sale priced at a modest discount — some reporting notes the SanDisk block was sold at a discount to the prior close, which can pressure near-term pricing and signal urgency to monetize. Sandisk (SNDK) Stock: Western Digital Dumps $3.17 Billion Position at a Discount
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation / profit-taking risk — after a large YTD rally, analysts and media flagged valuation checks, so some of today’s downside likely reflects re-rating or investors taking profits. Western Digital (WDC) Valuation Check After Multi Period Share Price Surge

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on WDC shares. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, January 16th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Loop Capital boosted their target price on Western Digital to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $223.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $156.07. The stock has a market cap of $96.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.55, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. Western Digital’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director directly owned 3,863 shares in the company, valued at $596,524.46. This trade represents a 31.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kimberly Alexy sold 1,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.00, for a total value of $272,272.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $552,090. This represents a 33.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock valued at $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Western Digital

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in Western Digital by 124.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the second quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC increased its holdings in Western Digital by 86.9% during the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 441 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its holdings in Western Digital by 551.4% during the third quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the period. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust bought a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. 92.51% of the stock is currently 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.