Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Receives $520.32 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-four analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eighteen have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $520.32.

WDC has been the subject of several research reports. Melius Research set a $1,050.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Fox Advisors cut Western Digital from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $560.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Western Digital from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $575.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $548.56 on Friday. Western Digital has a 1 year low of $73.14 and a 1 year high of $799.87. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $569.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $413.52. The company has a market cap of $189.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.75 and a beta of 2.14.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly optimistic about Western Digital (WDC) after its substantial year-to-date rally. Coverage highlights strong earnings-surprise history, favorable ratings and price targets that generally point to additional upside, although expectations are elevated. Are Wall Street Analysts Predicting Western Digital Stock Will Climb or Sink?
• Positive Sentiment: Investors are looking for WDC to benefit from continued AI-related infrastructure investment and improving enterprise-storage demand. Strong results from rival Seagate have reinforced hopes that Western Digital could deliver a similarly positive earnings update. Should You Buy Western Digital Before Its Earnings Report?
• Neutral Sentiment: Multiple previews say the earnings release could either rekindle investor enthusiasm or trigger a sharp reaction, since the stock has already risen significantly. Key issues include management’s outlook for demand, gross margin expansion and the durability of the AI-storage cycle. Sandisk and Western Digital Are Set to Report Earnings Soon
• Negative Sentiment: Recent weakness across memory and storage stocks reflects profit-taking, valuation concerns and caution ahead of earnings. Investors are also monitoring competition in the memory market and broader semiconductor-sector volatility. Western Digital Slides as Investors Appear to De-Risk Ahead of Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Reported insider-trading data shows substantial selling by company executives and other insiders over the past six months, with no reported open-market purchases. While such sales may reflect compensation or diversification, they could add to investor caution at elevated valuations.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 2,475 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 85,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,366,060.96. The trade was a 2.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Bruce E. Kiddoo sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $528.52, for a total transaction of $396,390.00. Following the sale, the director owned 3,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062,813.56. This represents a 16.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,093 shares of company stock worth $2,751,337. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDC. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Western Digital in the fourth quarter valued at about $788,729,000. Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its position 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 worth $195,882,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,062 shares in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $221,800,000. Value Aligned Research Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Western Digital in the 1st quarter worth approximately $350,403,000. Finally, National Pension Service grew its position in Western Digital by 267.6% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,691,659 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $291,422,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231,477 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.