Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Down 6.3% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) dropped 6.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $585.80 and last traded at $598.37. Approximately 7,788,814 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 15% from the average session volume of 9,183,527 shares. The stock had previously closed at $638.72.

Key Stories Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital is still being highlighted as a potential momentum name for Q3 2026, with Zacks citing its strong earnings surprise history and favorable setup for another beat. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts also raised their fair value estimate on WDC, reflecting renewed optimism around AI-driven storage demand and hard-drive pricing trends. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage around the Flipkart GOAT Sale noted Western Digital-branded storage devices among discounted products, which may help visibility and short-term demand but is not a major earnings catalyst by itself. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: SanDisk’s huge post-spinoff gains drew attention to the memory/storage trade, reinforcing investor interest in the group and Western Digital’s place in that theme. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: WDC fell alongside other memory and semiconductor names as the sector pulled back on concerns that AI-related chip demand may be cooling. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Recent market commentary also said Western Digital shares were down sharply as part of a broader selloff in memory stocks, with the Nasdaq weakness pressuring the group. Article Title

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Zacks Research upgraded Western Digital from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Western Digital from $310.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Western Digital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $340.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Western Digital presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $493.52.

Western Digital Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $185.78 billion, a PE ratio of 32.18 and a beta of 2.10. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $536.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $357.93.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.25 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.Western Digital’s revenue was up 45.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.36 EPS. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. Analysts expect that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. 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 Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The stock was 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 approximately $246,342,096. This trade represents a 3.24% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $556.24, for a total transaction of $1,376,694.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 85,154 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,366,060.96. This trade represents a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 29,322 shares of company stock worth $12,768,550 in the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Western Digital in the 4th quarter worth about $788,729,000. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $409,049,000 after buying an additional 3,339,225 shares during the period. Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its stake in shares of 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 last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at about $221,800,000. Finally, Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 1st quarter worth about $350,403,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.