New York, January 27, 2026, 13:12 EST — Regular session
- Western Digital shares climbed roughly 5.5% in early afternoon trading, pushing the storage sector higher.
- New analyst target upgrades sharpen focus on pricing and demand before Thursday’s results
- Traders are keeping an eye on a new 2x leveraged ETF linked to the stock
Shares of Western Digital climbed 5.5% to close at $254.06 on Tuesday, hitting an intraday peak of $255.83. Investors jumped back into the data-storage company ahead of its quarterly earnings report due later this week.
Timing is key. Western Digital is set to release its fiscal second-quarter results after Thursday’s close. Shares have been reacting to hopes that AI-fueled data-center spending is sustaining strong demand—and pricing—for high-capacity drives. 1
Mizuho boosted its price target to $265 from $240 on Tuesday, maintaining an “Outperform” rating. The firm highlighted AI-driven demand for “nearline” hard drives — those high-capacity disks used in data centers — and noted third-party pricing suggests a 15% to 20% quarter-over-quarter rise in average selling prices. 2
The day before, a Cantor Fitzgerald analyst raised the price target to $300 from $250, maintaining an “Overweight” rating — Wall Street’s way of saying they expect the stock to outperform peers. 3
The jump wasn’t unique to one player. Seagate Technology, Western Digital’s nearest publicly traded rival in hard drives, climbed around 5.9%. Memory-chip producer Micron also surged, up about 5.6% during the session.
Hard-drive manufacturers are sticking to a straightforward message: cloud clients want vast, affordable storage even as flash memory costs rise. Western Digital CEO Irving Tan told analysts in October that HDDs “provide the most reliable, scalable and cost-effective data storage solution,” according to Investor’s Business Daily. 4
Some traders flagged the debut of a new single-stock leveraged product linked to Western Digital. Tradr ETFs plans to list “WDCX” on Cboe this Tuesday. The fund aims to provide 200% of the stock’s daily movement — a setup known for magnifying both profits and losses, often drawing short-term traders. 5
But with prices already elevated, there’s little margin for missteps. If Thursday’s results suggest pricing power is waning, cloud orders are delayed, or supply is starting to catch up, the stock—priced for robust earnings and steady guidance—could take a sharp hit.
Investors are eyeing another key date: Western Digital will hold an Innovation Day on February 3 in New York. The company intends to share product and technology updates focused on the “AI-driven data economy.” 6
Thursday brings the earnings report and conference call, with investors eager for details on drive shipments, pricing strategies, and how steady demand remains among hyperscale clients. 7
