Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Stock Price Down 6.9% on Insider Selling

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares dropped 6.9% on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $422.11 and last traded at $463.51. Approximately 10,245,858 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 15% from the average session volume of 8,915,687 shares. The stock had previously closed at $497.92.

Specifically, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 808 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.63, for a total value of $427,941.04. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 114,539 shares in the company, valued at $60,663,290.57. This represents a 0.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on WDC. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Western Digital from $488.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $575.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Fox Advisors cut shares of Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $340.00 to $500.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $660.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $520.32.

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Western Digital remains a key supplier of high-capacity hard drives for cloud providers. Rising AI workloads are increasing data-storage requirements, while tight supply is supporting pricing power, revenue growth and margins. 2 AI Stocks That Beat NVIDIA – and Could Soar Even Higher
• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush raised its targets for Western Digital and Seagate, reinforcing the view that AI infrastructure spending and demand for storage capacity could remain strong. Morgan Stanley has also maintained a bullish outlook, with a reported $650 target, while other analyst targets remain substantially above current levels. Wedbush raises the bar for two AI storage stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital’s Aug. 5 earnings report is the next major catalyst. Investors will focus on gross margins, pricing, supply conditions and second-half guidance to determine whether AI demand is still translating into stronger profitability. The company’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with $2.72 in EPS versus a $2.39 consensus and revenue of $3.34 billion.
• Negative Sentiment: The broader AI memory trade is under pressure. Concerns about a technology rotation, weaker risk appetite and new Chinese AI and memory competition—including the strong debut of ChangXin Memory Technologies—have triggered selling across Western Digital, Micron and SanDisk. CXMT’s Blockbuster IPO Hits MU, SNDK and WDC—Is the Memory Rally at Risk?
• Negative Sentiment: Western Digital has fallen roughly 40% from its June peak, and investors are questioning whether elevated valuations have outpaced fundamentals. Even after the pullback, the stock trades at a premium, leaving little room for disappointing margins or softer pricing commentary. Western Digital’s Earnings Will Test Whether Its AI Rally Has More Room
• Negative Sentiment: An insider sold 808 shares for approximately $428,000 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. The sale was small relative to the insider’s remaining stake and is unlikely to be a major fundamental concern, but it adds modestly to near-term caution. SEC insider transaction filing

Western Digital Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $159.76 billion, a PE ratio of 27.67 and a beta of 2.11. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $565.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $400.49.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The data storage provider reported $2.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.33. Western Digital had a return on equity of 42.95% and a net margin of 55.29%.The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Western Digital has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.100-3.400 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Western Digital Corporation will post 9.61 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 issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 3.58%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Western Digital during the fourth quarter worth approximately $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $195,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,062 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter valued at $221,800,000. Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the 1st quarter valued at $350,403,000. Finally, National Pension Service increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 267.6% during the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $291,422,000 after buying an additional 1,231,477 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.