Western Digital (WDC) ended the recent trading session at $110.25, demonstrating a -1.92% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.55%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.19%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.95%.
The stock of maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers has risen by 41.9% in the past month, leading the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 9.88% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.64%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Western Digital in its upcoming release. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $1.57, signifying a 11.80% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $2.7 billion, down 34.03% from the prior-year quarter.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $6.52 per share and revenue of $10.92 billion, indicating changes of +32.25% and -17.76%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Western Digital should also be noted by investors. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the business operations and its ability to generate profits.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
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 last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed an unchanged state. Western Digital is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Western Digital currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.25. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 17.25, which means Western Digital is trading at no noticeable deviation to the group.
Meanwhile, WDC's PEG ratio is currently 1.17. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. As the market closed yesterday, the Computer- Storage Devices industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.19.
The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 206, finds itself in the bottom 17% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.
Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.
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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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