NEW YORK, January 9, 2026, 12:11 (EST) — Regular trading session
- Western Digital shares were up 1.7% at midday, trailing a broader rebound across storage names
- FMR LLC had about 10.1% of Western Digital as of Dec. 31, according to a Schedule 13G/A filing
- Investors are reassessing rate-cut bets after the latest U.S. jobs data, with the next earnings update due later this month
Western Digital Corp shares climbed Friday after a regulatory filing showed Fidelity’s FMR LLC owned more than 10% of the data storage maker. The broader storage group also bounced back following Thursday’s pullback. Western Digital was up 1.7% at $190.87 as of 12:11 p.m. EST.
The move follows Western Digital’s 6.1% drop a day earlier, after investors cashed in gains in AI-linked memory and storage stocks that had run up earlier in the week, Reuters reported. Swings like that are now routine for the group, where positioning can flip quickly on any new signal about AI infrastructure spending. 1
Western Digital makes hard drives and other storage products for cloud, client and consumer markets, and the stock has been treated as a lever on how much capacity big customers will need in 2026 and beyond. A big-holder disclosure can still move things at the margin when the tape gets jumpy and earnings are close.
FMR LLC, in a Schedule 13G/A filed on Thursday, said it beneficially owned about 34.47 million Western Digital shares — 10.1% of the class — as of Dec. 31. Schedule 13G filings are generally used when an investor tops the 5% mark without indicating plans to influence control, as opposed to a 13D typically used by activists. 2
Friday’s bid followed a broader bounce in risk assets after a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report put rate-cut bets later this year back in play, while markets also waited on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling tied to former President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Reuters reported. Rate expectations feed into long-duration growth trades, and storage names have been riding that trade all week. 3
Wall Street kept ratcheting up price targets after this month’s surge in the stock. Goldman Sachs bumped its target to $165 from $148 and stuck with a “neutral” rating. Mizuho, meanwhile, raised its target to $240 from $180 and reiterated an “outperform” rating, MT Newswires reported.
Still, it’s not hard to map out the downside. Morningstar analyst William Kerwin, in a note cited by Barron’s this week, said memory pricing could “normalize” over the next few years — another reminder this trade doesn’t run in a straight line. 4
Earnings are next. Western Digital is due to report on Jan. 22 after the close, TipRanks says, with attention on what management has to say about cloud demand, pricing and margins for the March quarter.
