Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on WDC. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $230.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Western Digital to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Western Digital from $260.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $275.75.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Shares of WDC opened at $294.97 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $100.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.59, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.77. Western Digital has a 52 week low of $28.83 and a 52 week high of $319.62. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $277.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $199.50. 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 (NASDAQ:WDC) 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. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The company had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Western Digital

In other Western Digital news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 10,148 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.31, for a total value of $2,743,105.88. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 107,794 shares in the company, valued at $29,137,796.14. The trade was a 8.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in Western Digital by 124.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 4,070.0% during the 2nd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Western Digital by 551.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 204 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Western Digital during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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?

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.