New York, January 13, 2026, 14:29 EST — Regular session
- Western Digital shares rose about 1.6% in afternoon trade
- Company set Jan. 29 as the date for fiscal second-quarter results and a post-close call
- Investors are bracing for earnings to test the AI-driven storage story
Western Digital Corp shares rose 1.6% to $215.57 on Tuesday, after the data-storage maker said it will report fiscal second-quarter results on Jan. 29, after the market closes — when regular U.S. trading ends at 4 p.m. ET. Shares have traded between $208.01 and $216.80 so far in the session. (Western Digital)
That calendar update lands on a stock that has been moving in big, quick steps. Western Digital jumped 5.8% in the prior session and has posted several sharp swings since the first week of January, a sign traders are still trying to price the cycle. (Investing)
The backdrop is an AI-driven rush into storage names. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang told analysts at CES that the memory storage market is a “completely unserved market today,” comments that helped ignite a rally last week in hard-drive and flash-related stocks, including Western Digital and peer Seagate. (Businessinsider)
Zacks Equity Research said analysts expect Western Digital to post earnings per share (EPS) — profit per share — of $1.92 for the current quarter. The same note put the consensus view for the current fiscal year at $7.66 a share and pointed to a quarterly revenue estimate of about $2.91 billion. (Finviz)
Peers were mixed on Tuesday. Seagate was up about 1.5%, while Micron fell about 2.3% in afternoon trade.
Western Digital sells hard drives used in cloud data centers and personal computers, with demand from hyperscalers — the biggest cloud operators — now doing most of the work in the stock’s near-term story.
The Jan. 29 report gives investors a cleaner read on whether pricing strength is holding and whether customers are still leaning into higher-capacity drives as AI systems chew through more data. Guidance will likely matter as much as the quarter.
But this setup cuts both ways. Expectations have climbed fast, and any sign that orders are slipping, supply is loosening, or pricing is cooling could hit shares hard after a run fueled by momentum and tight capacity talk.
The next catalyst is specific and close: Western Digital reports after the bell on Jan. 29 and holds its conference call at 4:30 p.m. ET, with investors listening for demand and pricing signals that can either extend the move — or puncture it.
