New York, Feb 6, 2026, 18:28 (EST) — Trading after the bell.
- Western Digital shares climbed roughly 8.6% in after-hours trading to $282.58, building on a sharp rebound from Friday.
- Cantor Fitzgerald bumped up its Western Digital price target to $420, following the company’s Innovation Day update.
- Feb. 11 jobs numbers and the Feb. 13 CPI print are on traders’ radar for clues on rate-sensitive tech.
Shares of Western Digital Corp (WDC) climbed roughly 8.6% in after-hours action Friday, last changing hands at $282.58 after a robust session surge. Earlier, the price moved between $258.18 and $283.93.
Tech and storage stocks moved up sharply in the session. Seagate Technology added almost 6%, while Pure Storage jumped over 10%. The S&P 500 advanced around 2%, and the Dow tacked on about 2.5%, based on MarketWatch figures. 1
WDC had just hit a 52-week high of $296.50 earlier in the week, but then slipped—dropping 7.18% Wednesday, then losing another 3.42% Thursday, according to MarketWatch. 2
Fresh analyst optimism pushed things higher. Cantor Fitzgerald bumped its target on Western Digital all the way to $420, up from $325, sticking with the “Overweight” call. The firm pointed to growth and profitability that now appear “significantly better” than it previously assumed. 3
Visibility is the hot commodity this time around, not just the product. CFO Kris Sennesael told TrendForce that production capacity for 2026 is basically spoken for, with customers now negotiating years in advance. The company cites “long-term agreements”—multi-year contracts that pin down both pricing and volumes—as central to the new model. 4
The company is pushing further into the AI data center market, mapping out bigger drives for the years ahead. According to Tom’s Hardware, it’s targeting a 40-terabyte (TB) UltraSMR drive for the second half of 2026. Production of heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) drives is on the docket for 2027—this tech packs data in tighter by applying heat—with a 100TB goal set for 2029. 5
Western Digital, now going by WD, is leaning into its latest product lineup as a strategy to keep hard drives in play amid the surge of AI-driven data growth. “WD Innovation Day is where our customer-centric business transformation meets our breakthrough technology for the AI era,” Chief Product Officer Ahmed Shihab said in a Feb. 3 statement. 6
The tape isn’t without a few counterpoints. CEO Irving Tan unloaded 17,201 shares on Feb. 2, cashing in roughly $5.1 million through a Rule 10b5-1 plan, the company disclosed. Meanwhile, a separate Form 144 filing indicated Cynthia Lock Tregillis planned to offload 6,780 shares. 7
The real question now: Can the rally stick as a slew of rate-driven data hits? The Bureau of Labor Statistics has the postponed January jobs numbers coming Feb. 11. Then, January CPI lands Feb. 13 at 8:30 a.m. ET—a double shot that could jolt rate-sensitive tech and hardware names as markets swing back open Monday. 8
