Western Digital's stock soared 5.05% over the past 24 hours, staging a sharp recovery from recent selling pressure. The rally came after the stock had experienced two consecutive sessions of steep declines, losing over 12% cumulatively amid NAND industry headwinds and concerns over increased competition from Chinese memory chipmakers.
The rebound was fueled by a broader oversold bounce across the storage sector. Peer Seagate Technology surged over 9% in after-hours trading following strong quarterly earnings, lifting sentiment for the entire group. Additionally, investment bank Wedbush raised its price target on Western Digital from $540 to $650, maintaining an Outperform rating and implying approximately 31% upside from current levels. This bullish analyst call provided valuation support and encouraged capital to re-enter positions ahead of Western Digital's own earnings report, scheduled for August 5.
The prior selloff had been driven by persistent fears about NAND pricing pressure, including reports of aggressive cloud customer negotiations on QLC eSSD and weak domestic CSP procurement demand. The IPO of Chinese memory-chip maker CXMT also intensified competitive concerns, threatening the medium-to-long-term market share and pricing power of U.S. storage companies. The overnight recovery suggests investors saw the sharp decline as overdone, with the positive sector catalysts triggering a relief rally.