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

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Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $54.26, moving +0.41% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.23%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.85%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.08%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers had gained 49.12% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 5.16%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.84%.

WDC will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect WDC to post earnings of $0.17 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 95.29%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $3.69 billion, down 27.86% from the prior-year quarter.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for WDC. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 4.97% lower within the past month. WDC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, WDC currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.88. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 16.88, so we one might conclude that WDC is trading at a no noticeable deviation comparatively.

It is also worth noting that WDC currently has a PEG ratio of 8.44. 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. Computer- Storage Devices stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 3.17 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 210, which puts it in the bottom 18% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow WDC in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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