What Happened?

Shares of leading data storage manufacturer Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) jumped 6.8% in the afternoon session after an analyst at Wedbush significantly raised the price target for the stock, reflecting a positive outlook on the company's future performance. 

Analyst Matt Bryson from Wedbush maintained an "Outperform" rating for Western Digital but increased the price target from $90.00 to $135.00, marking a 50% jump. This optimism was reportedly fueled by strong demand from the artificial intelligence boom and the company's leadership in certain data storage capacities. The move followed a trend of various analysts making upward adjustments to their price targets for the company, signaling growing confidence in the stock's potential.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

Western Digital’s shares are very volatile and have had 23 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 3 days ago when the stock gained 2.8% as multiple analysts raised their price targets and the company announced the expansion of a key testing facility to meet rising demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. Specifically, Wells Fargo increased its price target on the stock to $150 from $95, while Citigroup raised its target to $135 from $110. The analysts highlighted stronger demand for certain hard disk drives and better gross margin expectations. 

Adding to the positive sentiment, Western Digital announced the opening of its expanded System Integration and Test Lab. The facility was designed to help customers more quickly approve and adopt the company's high-capacity storage products. This move directly addressed the growing storage needs created by the boom in AI applications, which require massive amounts of data.

Western Digital is up 105% since the beginning of the year, and at $126.97 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $131.31 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Western Digital’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $3,346.

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