New York, Jan 23, 2026, 12:05 EST — Regular session
Western Digital Corp (WDC.O) shares dropped 2.7% to $236.81 during Friday’s midday session. The stock has fluctuated between $232.43 and $243.25 today. Seagate Technology (STX.O), a direct competitor, slipped 1.9%, while the Nasdaq-100 tracking ETF, Invesco QQQ, gained 0.6%.
The pullback arrives at a tricky time for the trade. Investors have been piling into storage stocks to tap into cloud spending linked to AI, and with the next round of company updates looming, fresh positioning is imminent.
The story itself takes a backseat to the numbers now. Western Digital deals in hard disk drives (HDDs), those spinning disks still favored for affordable, massive data storage in data centers. Even slight shifts in pricing and product mix can quickly squeeze its margins.
Morgan Stanley bumped Western Digital’s price target to $260 from $228, maintaining an Overweight rating. The firm cited “modest revenue upside” alongside “pronounced strength in margins” that may boost near-term EPS forecasts for both Western Digital and Seagate. It also noted its fiscal 2027 EPS estimates “could be conservative.” 1
Others jumped on the bandwagon as well. Investors Business Daily noted Bank of America bumped its target to $257, Citigroup pushed theirs to $280, and UBS nudged its target up to $230 while maintaining a neutral rating. Morgan Stanley’s Erik Woodring named Western Digital his “top pick.” 2
A recent regulatory filing revealed a minor insider sale: Chief Legal Officer Cynthia L. Tregillis offloaded 447 shares on Jan. 21, fetching $229 apiece. The sale was executed under a Rule 10b5-1 plan established in May 2025—designed to ease worries about trading on nonpublic information. 3
Western Digital completed the spin-off of its flash memory unit in 2025, leaving the company focused solely on hard-disk drives. The flash division now operates independently as Sandisk. 4
However, the stock assumes flawless execution and a supportive market. If cloud customers pull back on orders or HDD prices drop quicker than anticipated, that same operating leverage that boosted gains could just as easily turn against the company.
Western Digital is set to release its fiscal second-quarter results after markets close Thursday, Jan. 29, followed by a conference call at 4:30 p.m. ET. The company will then host an Innovation Day in New York on Feb. 3. 5
