New York, January 15, 2026, 19:01 ET — After-hours.
- Western Digital shares rose more than 3% in late trading after a fresh round of bullish price-target hikes.
- Analysts pointed to artificial intelligence-driven data demand as a key driver for storage and semiconductor names.
- Investors are now looking to Western Digital’s late-January results for confirmation.
Western Digital Corp shares were up 3.3% at $222.10 in after-hours trading on Thursday, after brokerage notes pushed up price targets and kept the focus on storage names tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure spending.
The move matters because the trade has been crowded and jumpy. In the last two weeks, retail flows have piled into memory and storage stocks on the view that AI buildouts will keep supply tight and pricing firm, leaving little room for disappointment.
Barclays analyst Tom O’Malley lifted his price target on Western Digital to $240 from $200 and kept an “Overweight” rating, a call that implies the stock should beat peers. He said 2026 is another year when “proximity” to the AI theme will likely drive performance. TipRanks
Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers raised his target to $260 from $180 and reiterated an Overweight stance, saying the firm refreshed its semiconductor model and was watching AI “leading indicators,” including industrial and electrical signals. TipRanks
Not every desk leaned in. Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider nudged his target to $165 from $148 but stayed Neutral, saying expectations were already high going into the earnings “print,” Wall Street shorthand for the results release. Mizuho also lifted its target to $240 and kept an Outperform rating, citing “attractive valuations” for the group even after a big 2025 run. TipRanks
The broader group was higher, too. Seagate Technology was up 2.6% at $320.32 and SanDisk gained 5.5% to $409.24 in extended trading.
A Reuters report on Wednesday flagged accelerating retail demand for the space: Western Digital has seen close to $10 million of net retail inflows in the first two weeks of January, according to Vanda Research data cited in the report. “Seeing SanDisk in the No. 4 slot tells us that it is more than simply a coincidence,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. Reuters
Western Digital develops and sells data storage devices and solutions, including hard disk drives used by public cloud and enterprise customers.
Still, the risk case is straightforward: these stocks have priced in a lot of good news, and any wobble in cloud spending, hard drive pricing, or the pace of AI infrastructure orders can trigger fast profit-taking. Analysts themselves are split between chasing the momentum and warning that the bar is getting higher.
Investors’ next hard catalyst is Western Digital’s second-quarter fiscal 2026 results, due after the market closes on January 29, followed by a conference call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.
