Western Digital (WDC) closed the most recent trading day at $187.00, moving +2.78% from the previous trading session. The stock exceeded the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.21% for the day. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 1.35%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 0.26%.
The stock of maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers has risen by 9.54% in the past month, leading the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 2.05% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.89%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Western Digital in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $1.92, showcasing a 8.47% upward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $2.91 billion, indicating a 32% decrease compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
WDC's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.63 per share and revenue of $11.67 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +54.77% and -12.14%, respectively.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Western Digital. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained unchanged. Western Digital presently features a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).
In terms of valuation, Western Digital is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 23.86. This expresses a premium compared to the average Forward P/E of 17.34 of its industry.
Investors should also note that WDC has a PEG ratio of 1.05 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Computer- Storage Devices industry stood at 2.13 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 14, which puts it in the top 6% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming 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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