Western Digital Stock Surges as Analysts Boost Price Targets Amid Data Storage Demand

Western Digital shares rallied sharply Thursday after Loop Capital's Ananda Baruah and Wedbush's Matt Bryson raised price targets, citing accelerating HDD economics and multiple expansion potential. The stock's 6.98% intraday gain extends a 186% year-to-date rally fueled by hyperscaler demand for high-capacity storage solutions.

Baruah's $150 target implies 16.9% upside, noting Western Digital has 'cracked open' the earnings rerating conversation. Bryson's revised $135 projection suggests 5.2% further appreciation. Both analysts maintain Buy ratings as the company capitalizes on AI-driven data center investments and improving NAND pricing dynamics.

The storage specialist's 78.8% annual gain reflects structural shifts in cloud infrastructure spending. While not directly crypto-related, Western Digital's momentum mirrors the compute-intensive demands of blockchain validation and AI training workloads that similarly drive GPU and ASIC markets.