New York, February 19, 2026, 18:44 (EST) — Trading after hours.
Western Digital Corporation slid 4% on Thursday, ending a two-day climb as investors stepped back following the storage company’s 52-week high the previous session. The stock finished at $284.67 after moving between $281.89 and $304.95. Volume came in at roughly 10.4 million shares. (MarketWatch)
This matters for Western Digital, still sorting out its balance sheet and capital structure after the Sandisk split. Investors have wasted no time, repricing any shift that hits leverage, cash deployment, or how much common stock is floating around.
Sandisk announced that Western Digital’s block of 5,821,135 shares was priced at $545 apiece in a secondary offering set to close Feb. 19. Ahead of settlement, Western Digital plans to exchange those shares for debt owed to J.P. Morgan Securities and BofA Securities affiliates. After the transaction, the company will still hold 1,691,884 Sandisk shares, according to Sandisk. (Nasdaq)
Western Digital is aiming to reduce its $4.69 billion debt, Reuters reported Wednesday, and plans to do that by offloading a portion of its Sandisk stake. The shares were sold at a 7.7% discount to Sandisk’s previous closing price, according to Reuters. (Reuters)
Evercore ISI’s Amit Daryanani described the deal as “a material acceleration of WDC’s deleveraging efforts,” adding it stands to lift earnings per share by somewhere between 4% and 6% thanks to share repurchases. (MarketWatch)
Western Digital swapped out its entire Series A convertible perpetual preferred stock for common shares on Feb. 17, following a successful stock-price test, a separate filing revealed. The deal hinged on the shares closing above 150% of the conversion price over a stretch of at least 20 out of 30 consecutive trading days, according to the filing. (SEC)
Broader markets sagged, with the Nasdaq ticking down 0.31% and the S&P 500 off by 0.28%. Investors remain uneasy over stretched valuations in AI-exposed tech, bracing for Friday’s Personal Consumption Expenditures release—the Fed’s inflation favorite. “The market is trying to grapple with what business lines are under threat in a material way from AI,” said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at GLOBALT Investments. (Reuters)
Seagate dropped 3.6%. NetApp managed a 0.3% gain, and Pure Storage added 1.4%.
WD is bringing back G-DRIVE as its main brand for creator-oriented external storage, set to phase out the SanDisk Professional name by the end of the month. “G-DRIVE has become synonymous with reliable, high-capacity, high-performance storage,” said Darrin Bulik, director of product management at WD. (Western Digital)
The Sandisk deal hasn’t settled yet, and Western Digital intends to offload its leftover Sandisk shares gradually. If closing logistics drag out, or if more stock than anticipated hits the market after swaps and conversions, shares could stay under pressure.
Friday’s focus: whether the Sandisk offering actually wraps up on schedule, plus any signs of Western Digital’s debt shrinking pace. Traders are also eyeing the inflation report, which could shake up expectations for rate cuts and impact high-multiple tech stocks.
