Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Shares Up 3.9% – Still a Buy?

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC)’s share price rose 3.9% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $319.20 and last traded at $316.93. 8,977,201 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 11% from the average daily volume of 10,105,132 shares. The stock had previously closed at $304.90.

Western Digital News Summary

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

• Positive Sentiment: Hyperscaler partnerships are strengthening revenue visibility for fiscal 2026 and support Western Digital’s high-capacity storage roadmap for AI/data-center customers — a demand-side fundamental that underpins longer-term sales growth. Western Digital’s Hyperscaler Momentum Boosts Revenue Visibility
• Positive Sentiment: Technical momentum remains constructive — analysts and chart watchers cite a recent golden-cross (50-day SMA crossing above 200-day SMA), which can attract trend-following capital and support the stock on pullbacks. These 2 Data Storage Stocks Just Flashed Golden Crosses
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation and momentum are now front-and-center — recent outsized gains have left investors parsing whether current prices already reflect near-term demand upside; some coverage frames current moves as momentum-driven rather than news-driven. Western Digital (WDC) Valuation Check After Strong Recent Share Price Momentum
• Negative Sentiment: Profit-taking and a “reset” in expectations after the AI-driven run-up appear to be the immediate catalysts; a recent conference presentation was treated by some traders as a sell-the-news event rather than a fresh demand surprise. Additionally, management’s move to monetize remaining SanDisk stake (cash-raising to reduce debt) may be viewed as balance-sheet cleanup rather than an earnings accelerator. Heavy insider selling (many recent open-market sales, few/zero purchases) adds to negative perception. Western Digital (WDC) slides as investors extend a pullback after a sharp AI-driven run-up

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WDC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $200.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 21st. Weiss Ratings raised Western Digital from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. China Renaissance initiated coverage on Western Digital in a report on Friday, December 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $193.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $240.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $265.58.

Western Digital Stock Down 7.5%

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $265.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $186.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $99.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.40, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.76.

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

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total transaction of $9,616,638.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. This trade represents a 7.12% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 92,795 shares of company stock worth $24,265,884 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Stance Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Western Digital by 2,134.1% during the 4th quarter. Stance Capital LLC now owns 7,462 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,285,000 after buying an additional 7,128 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its stake in Western Digital by 20.6% in the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 56,391 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $9,715,000 after buying an additional 9,615 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors raised its holdings in Western Digital by 145.8% during the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 5,950 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,025,000 after acquiring an additional 3,529 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Western Digital by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 59,679 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $10,281,000 after acquiring an additional 1,409 shares during the period. Finally, Pure Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,792 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $653,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.51% of the company’s stock.

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.