Western Digital (WDC) closed at $58.26 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.25% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500’s daily gain of 0.85%.
Coming into today, shares of the maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers had lost 5.89% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 1.96%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.37%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from WDC as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.47, up 280% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.04 billion, up 28.61% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $10.71 per share and revenue of $20.78 billion. These totals would mark changes of +135.38% and +22.78%, respectively, from last year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for WDC. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company’s business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.15% lower. WDC is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
Digging into valuation, WDC currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 5.37. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 25.56.
The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 178, which puts it in the bottom 30% 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.
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 Report
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