New York, January 26, 2026, 14:23 (EST) — Regular session
- Western Digital shares climbed roughly 2% in afternoon trading, following an initial surge sparked by an analyst raising the price target
- Cantor Fitzgerald bumped its price target up to $300 from $250, maintaining an “overweight” rating
- Traders are eyeing this week’s storage earnings alongside Western Digital’s results due Jan. 29
Shares of Western Digital Corp jumped 2.2% to $241.6 Monday afternoon, hitting an intraday peak at $250.31. The boost came after Cantor Fitzgerald lifted its price target to $300 from $250 and kept an “overweight” rating. 1
Storage stocks held firm as the market favored anything linked to data-center expansions. Seagate Technology climbed 4.6%, and Sandisk edged up 0.4% in the session. Western Digital, meanwhile, has surged roughly 40% since January, according to MarketScreener data. 2
Why it matters now: earnings season is fast approaching, and expectations are climbing. Seagate will release its fiscal second-quarter numbers Tuesday, with Western Digital set to report Thursday. Investors are focused on whether AI data center demand continues to outstrip supply and bolster prices, according to Investor’s Business Daily. 3
Cantor’s “overweight” rating is Wall Street lingo, indicating the broker believes the stock will outperform the average returns of its coverage universe. A raised price target often provides a new benchmark for short-term traders, particularly when the stock trades close to recent peaks.
Tradr ETFs plans to roll out a new single-stock leveraged fund tied to Western Digital as soon as Tuesday. The Tradr 2X Long WDC Daily ETF (Cboe: WDCX) aims to track twice the daily price movement of WDC shares. This setup boosts both gains and losses but can diverge from the stock’s performance over time since it resets every day. 4
Western Digital focuses on hard disk drives for PCs and data centers. It spun off its flash division into Sandisk in February 2025, making Western Digital more vulnerable to fluctuations in the hard-drive market. 5
U.S. stocks edged up on Monday as investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s policy announcement and anticipated earnings reports from major tech giants due later this week. 6
Thursday’s report from Western Digital will be scrutinized for clues on whether cloud clients continue to purchase high-capacity “nearline” drives—the large disks used in massive data centers. Investors are also zeroing in on any shifts in pricing strategy, as well as updates on shipment volumes and margins, especially after the stock’s recent surge.
That said, the situation works both ways. Should cloud spending cool off, pricing pressure intensify, or supply ramp up quicker than anticipated, the stock might lose ground fast after its recent swings.
Western Digital plans to report its fiscal second-quarter earnings after the market closes on Jan. 29, followed by a conference call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Traders see this as a key event that could either confirm the recent rally or trigger a sharp pullback. 7
