Insider Trading February 6, 2026

Western Digital Director Disposes $9.6 Million in Shares; Company Updates Draw Analyst Attention

Massengill sold 39,513 shares under a 10b5-1 plan as Western Digital outlines product roadmap and receives several analyst target increases

By Priya Menon WDC
Western Digital Director Disposes $9.6 Million in Shares; Company Updates Draw Analyst Attention
WDC

Matthew E. Massengill, a director at Western Digital Corp, sold 39,513 shares on February 5, 2026, in transactions executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, totaling $9,616,465. The company has concurrently been the subject of multiple analyst target changes and reiterated growth expectations tied to AI-driven data expansion and new hard drive technology roadmaps.

Key Points

  • Matthew E. Massengill sold 39,513 shares of Western Digital on February 5, 2026, for $9,616,465 under a Rule 10b5-1 plan.
  • Following the sale, Massengill’s reported holdings include 28,897 shares directly, 500 in an IRA, and 1,316 indirectly via a family trust.
  • Analysts have adjusted price targets and ratings amid Western Digital’s Innovation Day, product roadmap announcements, and a $4 billion share buyback program; AI storage demand and HAMR/ePMR technology roadmaps were central to those discussions.

Matthew E. Massengill, a director at Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ: WDC), completed the sale of 39,513 common shares on February 5, 2026, a Form 4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows. The disposals were carried out at prices ranging from $256.6312 to $268.055, producing gross proceeds of $9,616,465.

The stock sold in these transactions was transferred indirectly through a family trust. Post-transaction holdings reported for Massengill include 28,897 shares held directly, 500 shares in an IRA, and 1,316 shares indirectly held by the family trust.

Company filings show the trades were executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan that Massengill adopted on November 6, 2025. The use of a scheduled 10b5-1 arrangement indicates the sales were pre-authorized under the plan's parameters.


Analyst activity and corporate updates

Western Digital has drawn notable analyst attention and product announcements in the same period. Cantor Fitzgerald raised its price target for Western Digital to $420 while maintaining an Overweight rating after the company’s Innovation Day presentation that covered technical progress and financial modeling. Morgan Stanley raised its target to $369, pointing to demand for AI-focused storage as an important driver. Goldman Sachs set a target of $250, citing developments with HAMR technology. Separately, Evercore ISI reiterated an Outperform rating with a $310 price target following the company’s announcement of a $4 billion share buyback program.

On the product side, Western Digital set out a storage roadmap that includes a 40TB UltraSMR ePMR hard drive and plans that envision 100TB-plus HDDs by 2029. The company said it is pursuing dual technology approaches, with ePMR drives scaling toward 60TB while HAMR technology advances in parallel.

Western Digital also reaffirmed its expectation that global data volumes will grow by more than 25% annually over the next five years, attributing that expansion to AI and other emerging technologies. The company and multiple analysts highlighted AI storage demand as an important market force in the near to medium term.


Context for investors

The director sale is a discrete, documented transaction carried out under a pre-existing trading plan. Concurrent corporate communications - product roadmaps, buyback announcements, and analyst target revisions - provide the broader context in which investors may place this insider activity.

Risks

  • Insider sales under pre-arranged plans can reflect personal liquidity needs rather than changes to company outlook, so investors should not conflate the transaction with management’s operational guidance - affects equity investors and market perception.
  • Execution risk exists for technology roadmaps and scaling targets such as ePMR to 60TB and achieving 100TB-plus HDDs by 2029; failure to deliver to schedule could impact storage market expectations.
  • Analyst price targets vary widely, indicating differing assumptions about technology adoption and demand for AI storage, which can lead to elevated stock price volatility in the technology and data-storage sectors.

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