Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen
by Tristan Rich · The Markets DailyWall Street Zen upgraded shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Free Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.
A number of other research firms have also recently commented on WDC. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Zacks Research lowered shares of Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and issued a $340.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Twenty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.75.
Get Our Latest Analysis on Western Digital
Western Digital Stock Performance
Shares of WDC opened at $294.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. Western Digital has a 52-week low of $28.83 and a 52-week high of $319.62. The firm has a market cap of $100.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.59, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.77. The business’s fifty day moving average is $277.62 and its 200-day moving average is $200.18.
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $3.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.Western Digital’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Western Digital Announces Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s payout ratio is currently 5.02%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the completion of 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 8,518 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.32, for a total transaction of $2,174,815.76. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 99,276 shares in the company, valued at $25,347,148.32. This trade represents a 7.90% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Western Digital
Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 52,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,281,000 after buying an additional 5,731 shares during the period. LBP AM SA acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $641,000. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new position in Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,244,000. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC boosted its holdings in Western Digital by 75.4% in the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 9,465 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,778,000 after acquiring an additional 4,068 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the third quarter worth approximately $636,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.51% of the company’s stock.
Western Digital News Summary
Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Analyst upgrades and buy-side repositioning pushed WDC sharply higher — Bernstein upgraded WDC to Outperform, sparking double-digit intraday gains as investors positioned ahead of earnings and viewed recent dips as buying opportunities. Western Digital (WDC) Shares Skyrocket, What You Need To Know
- Positive Sentiment: Macro/industry tailwinds from an AI-driven storage squeeze: analysts and industry pieces note hyperscalers are locking long-term HDD/nearline capacity, leaving WDC sold out into 2026 and improving margins and visibility — a structural demand story supporting higher revenue and valuation. There’s A Storage Problem With AI Inference – And Western Digital Knows It
- Neutral Sentiment: Sector-focused products and ETFs are increasing investor attention to memory/storage names (e.g., launch of a Roundhill Memory ETF), which can amplify flows into WDC but also concentrate volatility. Roundhill Investments Launches First-Ever Memory ETF (DRAM)
- Neutral Sentiment: Pre-earnings positioning: coverage pieces noting WDC’s strong YTD returns and valuation checks are keeping the stock in focus; these narratives support trading interest but are mixed for near-term direction until results are released. Western Digital (WDC) Valuation Check As AI Storage Optimism And Q3 2026 Earnings Expectations Build
- Negative Sentiment: Zacks downgraded WDC from “strong-buy” to “hold,” a headline that can trigger short-term selling by momentum-driven funds or cautious investors re-evaluating conviction after a large run-up. Zacks.com
- Negative Sentiment: Broader market risk and short-term profit-taking: rising rate/inflation worries and sector rotation led to pullbacks across tech; Benzinga noted a recent intraday pullback and volatility that pressured WDC briefly. What’s Going On With Western Digital Stock Thursday?
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.