New York, Feb 12, 2026, 13:24 EST — Session underway
- Shares of Western Digital surged over 7%, briefly climbing past the $300 mark during Thursday’s session.
- Seagate, a storage peer, climbed despite a tech-driven sell-off dragging major U.S. indexes down.
- Friday’s U.S. CPI report is the next big macro test for investors.
Western Digital’s stock climbed 7.3% to $293.84 on Thursday, even hitting $306.87 earlier in the day. That’s notably strong compared to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, which fell roughly 1.2% and 1.6%, respectively.
The outperformance arrives amid investors’ efforts to sift through AI hype and actual earnings, leaving the market unsettled. “We see this as a ‘prove it’ year for AI,” said Jack Herr, primary investment analyst at GuideStone Funds, noting that traders are demanding companies demonstrate returns on heavy investments. Reuters
Memory storage stocks stood out as a rare bright spot while investors pulled back from tech shares overall. Seagate, Western Digital, and Sandisk ranked among the biggest gainers in the S&P 500, according to Investopedia.
Seagate shares jumped 8.7% to $442.70. Meanwhile, NetApp dropped 7.9% and Pure Storage slid 6.2%, highlighting that the bid isn’t lifting all storage stocks equally.
Western Digital came off a solid day, finishing Wednesday up 4.26% at $273.74 with roughly 9.3 million shares traded, according to MarketWatch data.
Western Digital is capitalizing on the surge in AI data-center expansion. CFO Kris Sennesael told Investors that around 80% of cloud storage still depends on hard-disk drives. The company is targeting a 20% compound annual revenue growth and aims for earnings per share to surpass $20 within three to five years.
At its Innovation Day event on Feb. 3, Western Digital, now simply WD, unveiled a high-capacity drive roadmap aimed squarely at AI-focused customers. The company revealed a 40TB UltraSMR ePMR drive currently undergoing qualification with two hyperscale clients — the biggest cloud operators. Volume production is set for the latter half of 2026. Meanwhile, HAMR (heat-assisted magnetic recording) is expected to ramp up in 2027, with plans to hit 100TB capacity by 2029.
WD is aiming to calm investors about its spending by promising to return cash. “The expanded $4.0 billion buyback authorization underscores our confidence in WD’s future,” CEO Irving Tan said in a statement on Feb. 3. Western Digital
That surge has driven Western Digital’s valuation into trickier territory, making its next move potentially volatile. AAII reported a P/E ratio of 25.6 for the stock, which sits above the industry median they referenced. They also highlighted at least one analyst downgrade in the last month.
Traders are eyeing Friday’s U.S. Consumer Price Index report for January, set to drop at 8:30 a.m. ET. Any unexpected inflation numbers could shake up rate expectations and send ripples through high-multiple tech and hardware stocks.
