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WDWDC

Western Digital Corporation

Strong FundamentalsStrong FundamentalsRevenue growing 45% YoY at strong marginsCatalyst pendingConsistent chatter on X (3.1K/wk), no spike
$WDC·$164B·Computer Hardware·Technology
$477.22+2.2%YTD+169.3%1Y+612.1%
Mentions · last 7 days
2026-07-11: 164 posts2026-07-12: 380 posts2026-07-13: 636 posts2026-07-14: 322 posts2026-07-15: 489 posts2026-07-16: 488 posts2026-07-17: 329 posts2,832+21%
Price updated 7h ago·X counts updated 7h ago
WDWDC
$WDCWestern Digital Corporation
$477.22+2.23%2.8k posts+21%
AI analysisFundamentalsVoices on X
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AI verdict & sentimentAI analysisGenerated by AI from underlying data

Top X posts

Today's AI verdict on what's driving $WDC, plus how loud the X conversation is and which way it's leaning.

AI analysis

TickerTalks’ read on the fundamentals and what’s driving the move.

Proven numbersEvent coming upAI verdict · as of 2026-07-17

A known event soon (earnings, a ruling, etc.) will likely decide the next move.

The memory supercycle is real and priced — July 29 has to show the mix flowing to the bottom line.

Western Digital is the pure-play hard-drive and flash-storage vendor riding the AI-driven memory supercycle. The stock has been one of 2026's biggest movers, and July 29 earnings is the pass-through test.

Why the setup reads:

  • Fundamentals justify the move: 31% operating margin and 28% return on invested capital, with global memory sales at a record $74.6B up 32% month-over-month — the demand backdrop is now the strongest in the industry's history.
  • The valuation isn't as stretched as the T12M print suggests: 27x TTM P/E with 45% gross margin means EPS has caught up materially with the price, and the ratio would compress fast if the current pricing environment holds.
  • Institutional flow confirms the setup: Q1 filings show hedge funds and institutions added 9.3% to WDC positions, and WDC is the third-best Nasdaq 100 performer of 2026 — that's real flow, not retail-only chasing.
  • The tape has cooled: sitting 16% below the 50-day with today's 9% drop, but still 50% above the 200-day — a healthy pullback in an aggressive up-trend, not a broken structure.

July 29 earnings is the trigger. Above-consensus revenue with NAND ASPs holding restarts the leg; a Q where NAND pricing rolls over is what turns the cool-off into a proper give-back given the size of the twelve-month move.

Agrees with X sentimentX is bullish on the memory-supercycle setup, the SK Hynix ADR-IPO tailwind, and the record global memory sales, and the fundamentals genuinely support it. The one honest limitation is that the retail line of '+219% YTD' is exaggerated — the actual print is up 163% YTD, which is still enormous but leaves less runway than the crowd assumes.

What to watch: The July 29 print — NAND ASP trajectory, HDD segment margin trend, and any FY guidance on memory pricing. NAND ASPs holding plus a raised FY guide restarts the leg; a soft pricing print is what turns cool-off into give-back.

On the calendar: 2026-07-29 — Q4 earnings

X sentiment

What the X crowd is saying right now — descriptive, summarised from the day’s posts.

Bearish sentiment9 posts analyzed · as of 2026-07-17

Western Digital is at the epicenter of the memory selloff. WDC dropped -12% in a single session alongside MU -12%, SNDK -15% and STX -10%, and Kevin Warsh's warning that AI spending may be outrunning monetization (citing early signs of overcapacity in memory chips) reinforced the reset narrative. WDC has finally flushed below the 50DMA after multiple bounces. Bulls note that WDC delivered a 60% run and six straight gap-ups following a prior 1,500% two-year move, so much of the profit-taking is legitimate and 'the memory bubble may have popped' language is starting to appear. One AI-blood-buyer trader flagged WDC alongside MRVL and PWR as bounce candidates. The dominant tone is capitulation and profit-taking rather than accumulation.

Read the AI verdict + X sentiment for $WDC

  • One-line verdict on what's driving the move — fundamentals, momentum, both, or an event
  • Next dated catalyst when there is one (earnings, deal closing, activist clock)
  • X crowd read with bullish/bearish call + post volume
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What it does

Plain-English summary of the business — what they sell and how they make money.

Makes HDDs and NAND flash storage under WD and SanDisk brands for cloud, enterprise, and consumer markets.

Industry overviewAI analysisGenerated by AI from underlying data

Where Computer Hardware sits in its cycle right now — and what that implies for $WDC.

Computer Hardware · Technology

No material change from last week — STX and WDC (SanDisk spinoff) benefit from LLM training requiring petabyte-scale nearline storage infrastructure.

What this means for $WDC

Direct beneficiary — Makes HDDs and NAND flash storage under WD and SanDisk brands for cloud, enterprise, and consumer markets; primary revenue lines track directly to the LLM training data storage demand pulling HDD/SSD production cycle.

Top industry ETF

$SOXXiShares Semiconductor ETF
+69.1%YTD
+111.7%1Y

Fundamentals & catalyst

Profitability, valuation, and the next earnings event — at a glance, with rule-of-thumb signals.

Key ratios

P/E
27.2How much investors are paying per dollar of profit the company actually earned in the last 12 months. Lower means the stock looks cheaper relative to earnings.~15–25 is typical for the S&P 500; high-growth names trade 30+; hyper-growth or speculative can be 100+ or negative.
ROIC
27.9%What percentage return the business earns on every dollar of capital (equity + debt) deployed in operations. The cleanest measure of business quality.Above ~15% is high-quality; consistently above 25% suggests a real moat. Below the company's cost of capital is value-destroying.
Op margin
30.8%Operating profit (after sales, marketing, R&D, and overhead but before interest and taxes) as a percentage of revenue. The clearest view of how well the underlying business is run.Mature business above 20% is healthy; software businesses can run 30%+; commodity / retail businesses operate in single digits.
FCF yield
1.6%Free cash flow (operating cash flow minus capex) divided by the company's market cap. The cash-on-cash return you'd get owning the whole business at today's price.Above ~5% is attractive; below ~2% means you're paying up for growth. Capital-light businesses (software) run higher than capital-heavy ones (utilities).
P/S
15.0Same idea as P/E but per dollar of revenue. Useful for companies that aren't profitable yet, where P/E is meaningless.Under ~2 is cheap; software / SaaS often runs 8–15; well above 20 implies the market is pricing in very high future growth.
ROE
91.9%Net income as a percentage of shareholders' equity. Similar to ROIC but counts only the equity side.Above 20% is strong, but can be inflated by leverage — a heavily indebted company can show high ROE with weak underlying ROIC.
Gross margin
45.4%Revenue minus the direct cost of producing what was sold, as a percentage of revenue. The first read on whether the product is structurally profitable.Software / SaaS is typically 70%+; consumer goods 30–50%; commodity / hardware businesses can be under 20%.
D/E
0.2Total debt divided by shareholders' equity. Measures how much the business runs on borrowed money versus owner capital.Under 1 is conservative; 1–2 is typical for mature businesses; over 2 is leveraged and more sensitive to interest rates.

Past earnings

QuarterReportedActualEstimateSurprise
Q1 2026Apr 30, 2026$2.72$2.39+13.8%
Q4 2025Jan 29, 2026$2.13$1.93+10.4%
Q3 2025Oct 30, 2025$1.78$1.59+11.9%
Q2 2025Jul 30, 2025$1.66$1.48+12.2%
Next earningsWed, Jul 29·consensus EPS $3.34

Quarterly trend

QuarterRevenueYoYGrossOpEPSFCF
Q3 FY26$3.3B+45.5%50.2%35.7%$9.29$978.0M
Q2 FY26$3.0B-29.6%45.7%31.9%$5.27$653.0M
Q1 FY26$2.8B+27.4%43.5%28.1%$3.34$599.0M
Q4 FY25$2.6B+30.0%41.0%26.1%$0.79$675.0M

Forward consensus

5-year forecast · up to 18 analysts
FYRevenueRangeEPSRangeAnalysts
FY26$12.9B$12.8B – $13.0B$9.98$9.80 – $10.5917
FY27$18.1B$15.0B – $20.0B$18.22$11.27 – $21.8918
FY28$23.4B$23.3B – $23.5B$27.67$21.03 – $34.3116
FY29$29.4B$24.9B – $33.2B$40.25$32.33 – $47.208
FY30$33.4B$28.3B – $37.8B$51.01$40.96 – $59.818

Setup & momentum

Volume, range, and moving-average position — the technical setup driving short-term moves.

Right now

Vol vs 30dToday's traded share volume divided by the average over the prior 30 trading days. ≥3× signals unusual interest; below 1× is quiet.1.2×Today's traded share volume divided by the average over the prior 30 trading days. ≥3× signals unusual interest; below 1× is quiet.
52w rangeWhere the latest close sits between the 52-week low (0%) and high (100%). Above 80% is extended; below 30% is basing or in a downtrend.56%Where the latest close sits between the 52-week low (0%) and high (100%). Above 80% is extended; below 30% is basing or in a downtrend.
vs 50d MALatest close vs the 50-day simple moving average. Positive = short-term trend is up.-13.9%Latest close vs the 50-day simple moving average. Positive = short-term trend is up.
vs 200d MALatest close vs the 200-day simple moving average. Positive = long-term trend is up.+52.9%Latest close vs the 200-day simple moving average. Positive = long-term trend is up.

Float & profile

FloatHigh float · 341.5M shFree-float shares — the slice of issued stock actually available to trade. Lower buckets squeeze harder on a catalyst.Traded today3.4% of floatToday's volume as a percent of the free float. Above 5% on a single day is unusually high turnover for the available share count.β2.175-year weekly beta vs the S&P 500. Above 1.5 means the stock typically moves more than the index; below 0.8 moves less.

Insider activity

Recent open-market buys and sells by officers and directors — flagged when multiple insiders cluster.

Recent transactions

SellJun 9Martin I ColeDirector1.2K sh$607KSellJun 5Cynthia L TregillisChief Legal Officer & Corp Sec432 sh$236KSellJun 1Vidyadhara K GubbiChief of Global Operations2.5K sh$1.4MSellMay 28Bruce E KiddooDirector750 sh$396KSellMay 27Cynthia L TregillisChief Legal Officer & Corp Sec214 sh$115KSellMay 22Cynthia L TregillisChief Legal Officer & Corp Sec308 sh$150KSellMay 21Cynthia L TregillisChief Legal Officer & Corp Sec106 sh$49KSellMay 11Davis Brian ScottChief Sales & Mrktng Officer1.9K sh$932KSellMay 4Vidyadhara K GubbiChief of Global Operations4.7K sh$2.1MSellMay 1Irving TanCEO3.8K sh$1.5M
1–10 of 11
+ 72 other (25 awards · 23 exempts · 23 inkinds · 1 gift) in window

See when $WDC insiders are putting their own money in

  • Real-time open-market buys and sells from Form 4 filings
  • Cluster-buy detection when multiple insiders pile in at once
  • 30 / 60 / 180-day windows so you can spot building conviction
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SEC filings

Material 8-K, 13D, S-3, and 424B5 events from the last 180 days — the filings that actually move the price.

Recent material filings

8-K/AUnregistered equity sale (amended)Jun 88-K/A — Item 3.02: Unregistered equity sale
AI summary

Western Digital Corporation (WDC) filed an amendment (8-K/A) to its June 3, 2026 report to disclose the final share count for its convertible note exchange: 21,289,938 shares of common stock will be delivered in exchange for approximately $858.4 million aggregate principal of 3.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2028, with the per-share price calculated using the June 3–4, 2026 two-day VWAP. This is a material equity dilution event — 21.3 million new shares issued to retire $858M of convertible debt, reducing leverage but expanding the share count.

8-KUnregistered equity saleJun 38-K — Item 3.02: Unregistered equity sale · Item 8.01: Other event
AI summary

WDC (WDC) disclosed unregistered sales of equity securities under 8-K Item 3.02. The transaction involved proceeds of approximately $858.4 million. Unregistered securities are typically sold in private placements under Rule 144A, Regulation D, or Regulation S exemptions, without requiring SEC registration at the time of sale. These transactions are material because they dilute existing shareholders and may result in significant blocks of stock becoming freely tradeable once registration rights are exercised.

3New insider — initial holdingsMay 283
AI summary

Manuvir Das filed an initial Form 3 for Western Digital Corporation (WDC) as of May 26, 2026, reporting his initial beneficial ownership upon becoming a new member of the WDC Board of Directors. This is a routine Section 16 compliance filing; the substantive board appointment details are in the companion 8-K (Item 5.02).

8-KOfficer or director changeMay 288-K — Item 5.02: Officer or director change · Item 7.01: Press release / Reg FD
AI summary

Western Digital Corporation's Board of Directors unanimously appointed Manuvir Das as a new board member on May 26, 2026, to serve until the next annual meeting of stockholders; Das was also appointed to the Audit Committee. An investor presentation (Regulation FD) was concurrently released as Exhibit 99.1. Das's background and a Regulation FD disclosure accompany the board expansion, indicating WDC is actively communicating updates alongside the governance change.

8-KCharter amendmentFeb 248-K — Item 5.03: Charter amendment · Item 8.01: Other event
8-KMaterial eventFeb 188-K — Item 3.03
+ 12 other (5 13Gs · 2 routine 8-Ks · 2 10-Qs · 2 earnings 8-Ks) in window

Recent news

Latest headlines from major outlets, sourced and timestamped — context for whatever just moved.

The Tech Shakeout: Market Extremes & Gavin Baker's Bold Callzacks.com·16h ago4 Top-Ranked Memory Stocks to Buy as AI Infrastructure Expands Globallyzacks.com·17h agoAI Data Growth is Exploding: Can Western Digital Keep Up?zacks.com·17h agoAMD Falls 5%, Intel Drops 4%, NVIDIA Slides 3% Before Recovering as Rotation Hits Semiconductor Stocks247wallst.com·19h agoInvestors Can't Shake AI Bubble Fears—But They're Not Dropping Their Favorite Tech Stocksinvestopedia.com·2d ago

In themes

Explore the broader themes this ticker is being talked about under.

Best PerformersAI InfrastructureAI Memory Supercycle

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Voices on X · top 15 · last 7 days

TickerTalks is a research tool, not financial advice. We surface social-attention data; we do not make stock recommendations. Past attention is not predictive of future price movements.

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