Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

15 Apr 2026, 01:15 by Amy Steele · The Cerbat Gem

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Sunday.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on WDC. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Zacks Research cut shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Western Digital to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Twenty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $288.33.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Western Digital

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ WDC opened at $366.22 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $124.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.73, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.77. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $287.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $212.10. Western Digital has a twelve month low of $35.00 and a twelve month high of $366.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

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

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Insider Activity

In other Western Digital news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total transaction of $2,501,349.48. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 623,586 shares in the company, valued at $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Stance Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 2,134.1% during the fourth quarter. Stance Capital LLC now owns 7,462 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,285,000 after purchasing an additional 7,128 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 20.6% during the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 56,391 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $9,715,000 after purchasing an additional 9,615 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 145.8% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 5,950 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,025,000 after purchasing an additional 3,529 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 59,679 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $10,281,000 after purchasing an additional 1,409 shares in the last quarter. 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 purchasing an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Western Digital News Roundup

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

Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokerages raised ratings and price targets on WDC, lifting investor sentiment—Bernstein upgraded to Outperform and raised its target to $340. Analysts Positive on Western Digital (WDC) as AI Boosts Memory Demand
Positive Sentiment: Citi / Citigroup raised price targets on WDC (and Seagate), keeping Buy ratings as they see AI data growth supercharging storage pricing; separate reports cite Citigroup boosting WDC to $405. Citi Raises Seagate and Western Digital Targets
Positive Sentiment: Evercore and other firms highlight SanDisk/WDC as core beneficiaries of an AI “picks-and-shovels” trade; Evercore raised its WDC target to $378, reinforcing momentum for WD-branded NAND/SSD assets. A Massive Storage Shift Is Underway — And Western Digital (WDC) May Be At The Center
Positive Sentiment: Sector momentum: memory and HDD stocks (including WDC, SanDisk, Seagate, Micron) have been leading the chip rally as investors rotate into AI infrastructure plays. Nvidia’s AI Reign Under Threat: These 4 Memory Stocks Are Now Leading The Chip Rally
Positive Sentiment: Company messaging from the Q1 2026 earnings call and transcript emphasizes HDDs as the most cost-effective solution for zettabyte-scale AI storage and describes internal AI usage to speed product development—this supports both revenue and margin narratives. Western Digital (WDC) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript
Neutral Sentiment: Roundhill launched a DRAM-focused ETF to capitalize on AI memory demand, which may channel incremental institutional flows into memory-related names including WDC. This New ETF Aims to Capitalize on Surging AI Memory Chip Demand (WDC)
Neutral Sentiment: Western Digital scheduled its next quarterly results release for April 30, 2026 — an event that could add volatility depending on guidance and execution vs. lofty expectations. Sandisk Bumps Atlassian Off the Nasdaq 100
Neutral Sentiment: Retail promotions (e.g., a sale on WD Blue SSD) are minor consumer-level items and unlikely to move the stock materially. Western Digital WD Blue SA510 SATA SSD drops to $299.99
Negative Sentiment: Insider selling was reported (~$16M of divestitures), which some investors view as a cautionary signal amid rapid run-ups—worth monitoring but not unusual after big gains. More Money In The Bank For Western Digital Insiders Who Divested US$16m

About Western Digital

(Get Free Report)

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.