New York, Jan 16, 2026, 12:05 PM ET — Regular session.
- Western Digital shares eased after an early jump, tracking a volatile session for chip-linked stocks.
- Fresh Wall Street target hikes kept attention on storage names tied to AI data-center spending.
- Traders are looking ahead to Western Digital’s Jan. 29 quarterly report and call.
Western Digital Corporation shares were down about 0.9% at $220.01 on Friday, after swinging between $217.06 and $233.98. About 3.8 million shares had traded by midday.
The stock has become a quick read on sentiment around data storage demand, particularly from cloud operators building out AI-related capacity. Friday’s fade came even as chip names broadly steadied.
Retail traders have been leaning into the theme. Western Digital has drawn nearly $10 million of net inflows — net buying by individual investors — in the first two weeks of January, Vanda Research data showed, after Western Digital and Seagate shares more than tripled in 2025. “Memory chips are certainly among the themes that are exciting our customers these days,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, while Samsung co-CEO TM Roh has called the shortage “unprecedented,” Reuters reported. (Reuters)
More broadly, chipmakers were back in the lead on Wall Street, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF up 2.1% and names including Micron, Seagate and SanDisk higher. U.S. markets will be closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with the earnings season set to thicken next week and the Federal Reserve’s Jan. 27–28 policy meeting approaching. (Reuters)
Analyst notes have also kept Western Digital in play. Barclays analyst Tom O’Malley raised his price target on the stock to $240 from $200 and kept an “overweight” rating — meaning he expects the shares to beat the sector — calling out names “centric to the pillars of the AI ramp.” (TipRanks)
Susquehanna, in a separate note focused on the storage group, lifted its price target on Western Digital to $205 from $135 while keeping a neutral rating, Barron’s reported. “We acknowledge that our earlier, more negative HDD industry thesis has proven incorrect-particularly with respect to STX,” analysts led by Mehdi Hosseini wrote, referring to rival Seagate. (Barron’s)
But the trade can turn fast. Any sign that cloud customers are pausing orders, or that tight supply gives way to softer pricing, would test a rally that has already pulled a lot of money into a small set of storage and memory names.
The next hard catalyst for Western Digital is its quarterly report after the close on Jan. 29, followed by a conference call at 4:30 p.m. ET. (Western Digital)
