New York, January 22, 2026, 18:14 EST — After-hours trading
- Western Digital shares edged up about 0.6% in after-hours trading after a day of choppy moves during regular hours.
- New price-target upgrades highlight rising storage prices and strong cloud demand.
- Traders are zeroing in on next week’s earnings release and the investor event scheduled for Feb. 3.
Western Digital’s shares edged higher by 0.6% to $243.29 in after-hours trading Thursday, following a day that saw the stock fluctuate between $228.67 and $254.94.
A late rally pushed Wall Street further into Western Digital’s stock ahead of next week’s quarterly report. Several firms raised their outlooks over the last two days, signaling renewed confidence. This stock now serves as a crucial barometer for whether major cloud providers will keep buying high-capacity storage at steady prices.
Morgan Stanley’s Erik Woodring singled out Western Digital as his “top pick,” a label gaining traction on trading floors this week amid the stock’s swift rally and the rush of speculative money. Investors
Bank of America raised its price target on Western Digital to $257 from $197, sticking to a buy rating. The firm anticipates the company will reach the high end of its guidance for revenue, margins, and earnings per share in its report due after the close on Jan. 29.
Citi analyst Asiya Merchant bumped her price target up to $280 from $200 while keeping a buy rating intact. She pointed to ongoing strong spending from hyperscalers, highlighting that major cloud providers are still heavily investing in data centers.
Rosenblatt’s Kevin Cassidy bumped his price target to $270 from $165, pointing to rising hard-disk drive prices and stronger demand. He emphasized the company’s “build-to-order strategy,” which means it ships mainly against confirmed orders rather than piling up inventory. This approach offers “good visibility” and keeps “limited inventory builds.” TipRanks
Cassidy highlighted a possible catalyst in HAMR, or heat-assisted magnetic recording—a technology that boosts data density by heating the disk during writing.
Western Digital said it will hold an Innovation Day in New York on Feb. 3, with a webcast available for investors.
Western Digital plans to release its fiscal second-quarter results after markets close on Thursday, Jan. 29. A conference call is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET.
Western Digital forecasted adjusted EPS at $1.88, with a possible swing of 15 cents, and revenue near $2.9 billion, plus or minus $100 million, for Q2 in its latest update. The company highlighted cloud customer demand as a major factor. CEO Irving Tan called it “a strong demand environment driven by growth of data storage in the cloud.” Reuters
Not everyone is bullish. Morgan Stanley turned more cautious this week on North American IT hardware, warning that tight budgets and climbing component prices could pressure demand and earnings forecasts across the sector.
Traders noted that Western Digital’s chief legal officer, Cynthia L. Tregillis, sold 447 shares on Jan. 21 under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, a filing cited by Investing.com reveals.
Friday’s trading leads up to the Jan. 29 earnings report, with investors closely watching for insights on cloud order patterns, pricing pressure, and margin shifts. Attention will then shift to Feb. 3’s Innovation Day, where new product reveals or updates to the long-term outlook might emerge.
