NEW YORK, June 20, 2026, 14:02 EDT
- Western Digital ended at $746.23 on June 18, gaining 4.79% before U.S. markets closed for the Juneteenth holiday on June 19.
- The stock jumped 32.6% over the four-session week, beating the Nasdaq Composite, which added 2.43% in the same period.
- Published price targets are lagging the share price again. The average 12-month target from 23 analysts is $554.13, according to a poll.
Western Digital closed out the week at a new all-time high, as investors bought up hard disk drive plays with links to AI data centers. Shares were up 4.79% to $746.23 at Thursday’s close, after hitting $799.87 earlier in the day.
The U.S. market holiday made the timing stand out. With Friday closed for Juneteenth, Thursday’s rally was the last move before trading resumes next week. Nasdaq’s normal trading window is 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday, except holidays.
Western Digital didn’t just run up on its own. The Nasdaq added 1.91% on Thursday with chip stocks strong, and the Philadelphia semiconductor index jumped 6.4%, according to Reuters. WDC still outpaced both, up 32.6% for the week. That’s another sign the storage names are catching extra heat in the AI story.
Western Digital got another price target bump after more Wall Street analysts moved numbers higher. Morgan Stanley’s Erik Woodring took his target to $650 from $488 on the stock, keeping his Overweight call. He pointed to a shortage of HDDs — hard disk drives for storing big data. Woodring said HDDs are still the “cleanest estimate revision and re-rating story” out of all the hardware names he covers. Barron’s
Demand for HDDs is outpacing supply as cloud buyers ramp up capacity for AI inference, which generates and stores large amounts of data. MarketWatch said Woodring expects HDD demand to rise 40% to 50% a year, while supply looks to grow 30% to 35%.
Western Digital has stuck to a similar message. CEO Irving Tan told investors in April that the “demand drivers are clear” and said “virtually every AI workload” produces data needing persistent storage. The company posted fiscal third-quarter revenue of $3.34 billion, up 45% from last year, and projected fiscal fourth-quarter revenue at $3.65 billion, give or take $100 million. Western Digital
Seagate shares have jumped along with Western Digital on the AI demand story, giving a strong read-through for the group. Seagate CEO Dave Mosley told analysts after earnings that “AI is amplifying demand across existing applications.” Reuters said execs at both Seagate and Western Digital have capacity sold out and fully booked through calendar 2026. Reuters
Another factor in the move is a clearer company setup. Western Digital finished splitting off its flash unit in 2025. The company now focuses on HDD, while Sandisk trades separately as a flash-memory stock. Reuters has said Western Digital concentrates on storage devices using HDD tech for cloud, client and consumer markets.
But now the risk is out there. The stock ended above where analysts have their average target, and Morgan Stanley’s new $650 target is still lower than Thursday’s close. If AI server spending eases up, inventory builds up for customers, or HDD supply ramps up sooner, the pricing strength that pushed up estimates could start to unwind.
Next week will show if investors still see WDC as a scarcity play or decide it’s overbought. Buyers are sticking with the scarcity view for now. The risk, though, is that at this price Western Digital needs more than just steady HDD demand. The supply shortage has to hold.
