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Western Digital (WDC) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $48.96, moving -0.39% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.7% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.58%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.69%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers had gained 4% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 3.68%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.95%.

WDC will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.49, down 86.5% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $3.69 billion, down 26.4% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.55 per share and revenue of $16.69 billion. These totals would mark changes of -62.32% and -19.16%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for WDC. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-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. 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, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. WDC currently has a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that WDC has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.86 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.39, so we one might conclude that WDC is trading at a discount comparatively.

Also, we should mention that WDC has a PEG ratio of 0.47. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. WDC's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.69 as of yesterday's close.

The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 219, which puts it in the bottom 15% 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.

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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