Western Digital (WDC) ended the recent trading session at $66.93, demonstrating a +1.19% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.14%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.2%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.27%.
Shares of the maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers witnessed a gain of 18.74% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Computer and Technology sector with its gain of 5.36%, and the S&P 500's gain of 3.97%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Western Digital in its upcoming release. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $1.47, marking a 2.08% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $2.45 billion, indicating a 34.79% decrease compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.73 per share and revenue of $9.37 billion, which would represent changes of +2465% and 0%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Western Digital. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the business health and profitability.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To take advantage of this, we've established the Zacks Rank, an exclusive model that considers these estimated changes and delivers an operational rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 0.75% upward. Western Digital is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
In the context of valuation, Western Digital is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 11.55. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 13.63 for its industry.
The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 40, placing it within the top 17% of over 250 industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Western Digital Corporation (WDC): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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