Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-four analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $265.5833.

A number of equities analysts have commented on WDC shares. UBS Group set a $306.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Western Digital in a report on Friday, February 6th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Western Digital from $197.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Monday, February 2nd.

Western Digital Stock Performance

NASDAQ WDC opened at $275.34 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $272.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $193.09. Western Digital has a 12-month low of $28.83 and a 12-month high of $319.62. The firm has a market cap of $93.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.62, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.76. 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) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for 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%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.77 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Western Digital will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

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

Key Headlines Impacting Western Digital

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

• Positive Sentiment: Cloud growth and margin upside highlighted as a key thesis for WDC’s next leg of revenue and margin expansion. Western Digital: Cloud Key Driver To Growth And Margins
• Positive Sentiment: Technical market action: a recent trading signal coincided with a rebound in WDC shares, supporting near-term momentum. Western Digital Shares Rebound, Climb 3% After Key Trading Signal
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst comparisons favor WDC over peers like NetApp on AI-driven storage demand and cash returns, reinforcing buy-case narratives. Western Digital vs. NetApp: Which Data Storage Stock is the Better Buy?
• Positive Sentiment: WD is part of an open-source quantum error correction collaboration (OQD + QuScript), signaling R&D breadth that may support longer-term enterprise opportunities. OQD Launches Open-Source Collaboration with WD and QuScript to Advance Quantum Error Correction
• Neutral Sentiment: Retail promotions and deep discounts on WD-branded SSDs/HDDs (Amazon/Best Buy sales) could boost volume but also reflect aggressive consumer pricing. Upgrade your NAS storage with this WD 2TB SSD – now $240 off during Amazon’s Spring Sale
• Negative Sentiment: Google’s new TurboQuant algorithm has raised investor concerns that AI models could require materially less memory, potentially reducing hardware demand long-term. Google Just Unveiled TurboQuant: Should You Sell Sandisk Stock Now?
• Negative Sentiment: Sector reaction and a Micron selloff reflect investor skepticism about how sustainable AI-driven memory demand will be if efficiency improvements proliferate. Micron Drop Raises A Bigger AI Question
• Negative Sentiment: Broader market and interest-rate concerns are pressuring computer and memory stocks generally, tempering upside for WDC despite company-level positives. SNDK, WDC and STX Forecasts – Computer Companies Fall with Everything Else

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Western Digital

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WDC. ORG Partners LLC lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 117 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 407 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Westfuller Advisors LLC bought a new position in Western Digital in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. 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.