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Western Digital (WDC) Registers a Bigger Fall Than the Market: Important Facts to Note

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Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) closed at $65.19 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.35% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.79%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.94%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.92%.

Shares of the maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers witnessed a gain of 19.17% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Computer and Technology sector with its gain of 7.88%, and the S&P 500's gain of 5.22%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Western Digital in its upcoming earnings disclosure. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $1.47, marking a 2.08% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $2.45 billion, showing a 34.79% drop compared to the year-ago quarter.

WDC's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.73 per share and revenue of $9.37 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +2465% and 0%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Western Digital. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. 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 past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 0.6% downward. At present, Western Digital boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Western Digital's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 11.54. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.89, which means Western Digital is trading at a discount to the group.

The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 163, putting it in the bottom 35% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.


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