New York, January 16, 2026, 19:13 EST — After-hours trading session
Western Digital shares slipped 0.2% in after-hours trading Friday, despite price target upgrades from Evercore ISI and Susquehanna. Evercore bumped its target to $230 from $190, while Susquehanna raised theirs sharply to $205 from $135.
The calls arrive just before a holiday-shortened week, as U.S. equity and options markets shut down Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Trading picks back up Tuesday. Such a calendar often squeezes liquidity and can amplify swings around analyst reports and early earnings news.
Investors are keeping an eye on Western Digital’s leftover SanDisk shares, from the flash-memory spin-off back in February 2025. According to a filing, Western Digital held onto 28.8 million SanDisk shares initially, then swapped 21.3 million of those to pay down $800 million of term-loan principal. The company expected to sell off the remaining shares within a year of the separation.
Susquehanna’s Mehdi Hosseini admitted the firm’s previous bearish take on hard drives “proven incorrect,” citing stronger demand, Barron’s reported. The analyst also raised Seagate Technology to Neutral from Negative in that note. Barron’s
Evercore expects Western Digital to sell off its remaining roughly 5% stake in SanDisk within weeks, with most of the proceeds aimed at cutting debt. Any extra cash will likely be returned to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.
Markets showed choppy moves ahead of the long weekend as investors focused on the upcoming batch of quarterly earnings. “One of the other reasons markets have been flat-lining is we’re at the start of the earnings season,” said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial. Reuters
Storage tends to shift quickly. If demand weakens or prices drop, those new targets won’t hold much weight. Meanwhile, any hold-up in the SanDisk stake sale risks leaving capital-return hopes in limbo.
Western Digital plans to release its fiscal second-quarter earnings after the market closes on Thursday, Jan. 29, followed by a conference call at 4:30 p.m. ET. Investors are keenly watching for any updates on pricing trends for high-capacity drives and news regarding its SanDisk stake.
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