We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience.
This includes personalizing content and advertising.
By pressing "Accept All" or closing out of this banner, you consent to the use of all cookies and similar technologies and the sharing of information they collect with third parties.
You can reject marketing cookies by pressing "Deny Optional," but we still use essential, performance, and functional cookies.
In addition, whether you "Accept All," Deny Optional," click the X or otherwise continue to use the site, you accept our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, revised from time to time.
You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating individual securities.
If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK. If you do not, click Cancel.
Western Digital and Whirlpool have been highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
Read MoreHide Full Article
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – September 4, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) as the Bull of the Day and Whirlpool (WHR - Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Intel Corp. (INTC - Free Report) , NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA - Free Report) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD - Free Report) .
Western Digital provides scalable, sustainable technology for the world’s hyperscalers, enterprises, and cloud providers, delivering cutting-edge innovation that drives the next generation of AI-driven data workloads.
The stock sports a bullish Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), with EPS expectations moving higher across the board over recent months.
WDC also resides in the Zacks Computer – Storage industry, which is currently ranked in the top 18% of all Zacks industries.
WDC Sees AI Momentum
WDC shares have been red-hot over the past three months thanks to strong quarterly results, gaining more than 55% and crushing the S&P 500. The company enjoyed nice growth throughout its latest period, with sales of $2.6 billion up 30% YoY and eclipsing prior guidance.
Margin performance was notably strong, with WDC’s gross margin improving to 41.0% vs. the 34.8% mark in the same period last year. The company also initiated a cash dividend and reduced its debt by a sizable $2.6 billion, further adding to the positivity.
Irving Tan, CEO, remains bullish on WDC’s outlook, stating –
“We are confident that HDDs will continue to remain the foundation of the world’s data infrastructure, delivering unmatched value for mass storage in an AI-driven future.”
WDC shares have also recently experienced the ‘Golden Cross,’ as illustrated in the chart below. The Golden Cross occurs when the shorter 50-day moving average rises above the 200-day moving average, reflecting bullish momentum.
Bottom Line
Investors can implement a stellar strategy to find expected winners by taking advantage of the Zacks Rank – one of the most powerful market tools that provides a massive edge.
The top 5% of all stocks receive the highly coveted Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). These stocks should outperform the market more than any other rank.
Western Digital would be an excellent stock for investors to consider, as displayed by its Zack Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Whirlpool is one of the world's largest manufacturers of home appliances. The company's portfolio of products can be broadly classified into laundry appliances, refrigerators and freezers, cooking appliances, and other small household appliances such as dishwashers and mixers.
The stock is a current Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), with analysts slashing their EPS expectations across the board.
In addition, the company resides in the Zacks – Household Appliances industry, which is currently ranked in the bottom 4% of all Zacks industries.
Whirlpool Cuts Guidance
WHR’s latest quarterly results disappointed investors, with the stock facing notable selling pressure following the release. Concerning headline figures, sales of $3.8 billion fell 5.5% YoY alongside a 44% decline in adjusted EPS.
What really soured sentiment, though, was the company’s guidance cut, with WHR cutting its current year free cash flow, adjusted EPS, and EBIT margin outlooks. Still, despite the negativity, WHR shares have bounced back nicely off post-earnings lows so far, up more than 10% overall over the last three months.
CEO Mark Bitzer remains confident, stating –
"As expected, the second quarter continued to be impacted by competitors stockpiling Asian imports into the U.S. Despite this, we are well positioned in North America with a robust pipeline of new products, the industry's leading U.S. manufacturing footprint, and favorable housing demand fundamentals. We are confident in our long-term strategy and believe that evolving tariff policies will ultimately support domestic manufacturers."
Bottom Line
Negative earnings estimate revisions, stemming from guidance cuts, paint a challenging picture for the company’s shares in the near term.
Whirlpool is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), indicating that analysts have taken a bearish stance on the company’s earnings outlook.
For those seeking strong stocks, the best idea would be to focus on stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) – these stocks sport a notably stronger earnings outlook paired with the potential to deliver explosive gains in the near term.
Additional content:
Can Intel Cash-In on Getac's F120 Launch to Scale AI Enhanced Tasks
Intel Corp.recently announced that its AI Boost NPU and Intel Core Ultra 200V Series Processor will power the world’s first fully rugged Copilot+PC in tablet form. Dubbed F120, this state-of-the-art tablet is manufactured by Getac Technology Corporation, a leading provider of rugged computing and mobile video solutions. Designed to harness AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities in complex and challenging environments across the defense, utilities, manufacturing and automotive industries, the F120 boasts seamless multitasking prowess, courtesy of Intel’s NPU and processor support.
INTC Focusing on AI Chips
The increased adoption of Intel processors and NPUs follows the positive feedback of Xeon 6 processors with Performance-cores (P-Cores). This system-on-chip (SoC) has been designed to meet the huge demand for high AI workloads across various sectors. With industry-leading performance across data center workloads and up to two times higher performance in AI processing, the Xeon 6 family delivers the industry’s best central processing unit (CPU) for AI at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
Intel Xeon platforms have reportedly set the benchmark in 5G cloud-native core with substantial performance and power-efficiency improvements, additional power-saving capabilities and easy-to-deploy software. This has triggered healthy demand trends from major telecom equipment manufacturers and independent software vendors to optimize and unleash proven power savings for a more sustainable future.
Intel has also partnered with Exostellar to make enterprise-grade AI infrastructure accessible in a cost-effective manner. Intel’s partnership with this leading innovator in autonomous compute orchestration and cloud optimization, which leverages AI and ML technologies, is likely to deliver an end-to-end solution with support for quota enforcement, dynamic borrowing, fair queuing and priority-based scheduling. This, in turn, will bring cloud-like agility and efficiency to on-premises or hybrid infrastructure for a more competitive AI hardware ecosystem.
Price Performance
With healthy AI chip traction, Intel has gained 24.6% in the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 54.5%, lagging NVIDIACorp. but outperforming Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. While Advanced Micro has gained 15.2%, NVIDIA is up 60.8% over this period.
Estimate Revision Trend of INTC
Earnings estimates for Intel for 2025 have moved down 87.2% to 14 cents over the past year, while the same for 2026 has declined 64.6% to 68 cents. The negative estimate revision depicts bearish sentiments for the stock.
INTC Plagued by Margin Woes
Although Intel has scaled its AI footprint, it seems to lag NVIDIA on the innovation front, with the latter’s H100 and Blackwell GPUs being runaway successes. Leading technology companies are reportedly piling up NVIDIA’s GPUs to build clusters of computers for their AI work, leading to exponential revenue growth.
An accelerated ramp-up of AI PCs further affected the short-term margins of Intel as it shifted production to its high-volume facility in Ireland, where wafer costs are typically higher. Margins were also adversely impacted by higher charges related to non-core businesses, charges associated with unused capacity and an unfavorable product mix.
Bitter China Trade Ties Hurt INTC
China accounted for more than 29% of Intel's total revenues in 2024, making it the single largest market for the company. However, the communist nation's purported move to replace U.S.-made chips with domestic alternatives significantly affected INTC’s revenue prospects. The directive to phase out foreign chips from key telecom networks by 2027 underscores Beijing's accelerating efforts to reduce reliance on Western technology amid escalating U.S.-China tensions.
Moreover, weaker spending across consumer and enterprise markets, especially in China, resulted in elevated customer inventory levels, resulting in soft demand trends. Strict export control measures are likely to affect the market dynamics further, leading to below-par revenue growth in the near term.
End Note
Intel has been facing challenges due to the disruptive rise of over-the-top service providers in this dynamic industry. Price-sensitive competition for customer retention in the core business is expected to intensify in the coming days. Aggressive competition is likely to limit the ability to attract and retain customers and affect operating and financial results.
The road ahead for Intel is bumpy and strewn with daunting challenges, and how it navigates these roadblocks in the coming days remains to be seen. Intel carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Free: Instant Access to Zacks' Market-Crushing Strategies
Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year.
Today you can tap into those powerful strategies – and the high-potential stocks they uncover – free. No strings attached.
Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss.This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index.Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
See More Zacks Research for These Tickers
Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:
Image: Bigstock
Western Digital and Whirlpool have been highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – September 4, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) as the Bull of the Day and Whirlpool (WHR - Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Intel Corp. (INTC - Free Report) , NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA - Free Report) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD - Free Report) .
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks.
Bull of the Day:
Western Digital provides scalable, sustainable technology for the world’s hyperscalers, enterprises, and cloud providers, delivering cutting-edge innovation that drives the next generation of AI-driven data workloads.
The stock sports a bullish Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), with EPS expectations moving higher across the board over recent months.
WDC also resides in the Zacks Computer – Storage industry, which is currently ranked in the top 18% of all Zacks industries.
WDC Sees AI Momentum
WDC shares have been red-hot over the past three months thanks to strong quarterly results, gaining more than 55% and crushing the S&P 500. The company enjoyed nice growth throughout its latest period, with sales of $2.6 billion up 30% YoY and eclipsing prior guidance.
Margin performance was notably strong, with WDC’s gross margin improving to 41.0% vs. the 34.8% mark in the same period last year. The company also initiated a cash dividend and reduced its debt by a sizable $2.6 billion, further adding to the positivity.
Irving Tan, CEO, remains bullish on WDC’s outlook, stating –
“We are confident that HDDs will continue to remain the foundation of the world’s data infrastructure, delivering unmatched value for mass storage in an AI-driven future.”
WDC shares have also recently experienced the ‘Golden Cross,’ as illustrated in the chart below. The Golden Cross occurs when the shorter 50-day moving average rises above the 200-day moving average, reflecting bullish momentum.
Bottom Line
Investors can implement a stellar strategy to find expected winners by taking advantage of the Zacks Rank – one of the most powerful market tools that provides a massive edge.
The top 5% of all stocks receive the highly coveted Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). These stocks should outperform the market more than any other rank.
Western Digital would be an excellent stock for investors to consider, as displayed by its Zack Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Bear of the Day:
Whirlpool is one of the world's largest manufacturers of home appliances. The company's portfolio of products can be broadly classified into laundry appliances, refrigerators and freezers, cooking appliances, and other small household appliances such as dishwashers and mixers.
The stock is a current Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), with analysts slashing their EPS expectations across the board.
In addition, the company resides in the Zacks – Household Appliances industry, which is currently ranked in the bottom 4% of all Zacks industries.
Whirlpool Cuts Guidance
WHR’s latest quarterly results disappointed investors, with the stock facing notable selling pressure following the release. Concerning headline figures, sales of $3.8 billion fell 5.5% YoY alongside a 44% decline in adjusted EPS.
What really soured sentiment, though, was the company’s guidance cut, with WHR cutting its current year free cash flow, adjusted EPS, and EBIT margin outlooks. Still, despite the negativity, WHR shares have bounced back nicely off post-earnings lows so far, up more than 10% overall over the last three months.
CEO Mark Bitzer remains confident, stating –
"As expected, the second quarter continued to be impacted by competitors stockpiling Asian imports into the U.S. Despite this, we are well positioned in North America with a robust pipeline of new products, the industry's leading U.S. manufacturing footprint, and favorable housing demand fundamentals. We are confident in our long-term strategy and believe that evolving tariff policies will ultimately support domestic manufacturers."
Bottom Line
Negative earnings estimate revisions, stemming from guidance cuts, paint a challenging picture for the company’s shares in the near term.
Whirlpool is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), indicating that analysts have taken a bearish stance on the company’s earnings outlook.
For those seeking strong stocks, the best idea would be to focus on stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) – these stocks sport a notably stronger earnings outlook paired with the potential to deliver explosive gains in the near term.
Additional content:
Can Intel Cash-In on Getac's F120 Launch to Scale AI Enhanced Tasks
Intel Corp.recently announced that its AI Boost NPU and Intel Core Ultra 200V Series Processor will power the world’s first fully rugged Copilot+PC in tablet form. Dubbed F120, this state-of-the-art tablet is manufactured by Getac Technology Corporation, a leading provider of rugged computing and mobile video solutions. Designed to harness AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities in complex and challenging environments across the defense, utilities, manufacturing and automotive industries, the F120 boasts seamless multitasking prowess, courtesy of Intel’s NPU and processor support.
INTC Focusing on AI Chips
The increased adoption of Intel processors and NPUs follows the positive feedback of Xeon 6 processors with Performance-cores (P-Cores). This system-on-chip (SoC) has been designed to meet the huge demand for high AI workloads across various sectors. With industry-leading performance across data center workloads and up to two times higher performance in AI processing, the Xeon 6 family delivers the industry’s best central processing unit (CPU) for AI at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
Intel Xeon platforms have reportedly set the benchmark in 5G cloud-native core with substantial performance and power-efficiency improvements, additional power-saving capabilities and easy-to-deploy software. This has triggered healthy demand trends from major telecom equipment manufacturers and independent software vendors to optimize and unleash proven power savings for a more sustainable future.
Intel has also partnered with Exostellar to make enterprise-grade AI infrastructure accessible in a cost-effective manner. Intel’s partnership with this leading innovator in autonomous compute orchestration and cloud optimization, which leverages AI and ML technologies, is likely to deliver an end-to-end solution with support for quota enforcement, dynamic borrowing, fair queuing and priority-based scheduling. This, in turn, will bring cloud-like agility and efficiency to on-premises or hybrid infrastructure for a more competitive AI hardware ecosystem.
Price Performance
With healthy AI chip traction, Intel has gained 24.6% in the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 54.5%, lagging NVIDIA Corp. but outperforming Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. While Advanced Micro has gained 15.2%, NVIDIA is up 60.8% over this period.
Estimate Revision Trend of INTC
Earnings estimates for Intel for 2025 have moved down 87.2% to 14 cents over the past year, while the same for 2026 has declined 64.6% to 68 cents. The negative estimate revision depicts bearish sentiments for the stock.
INTC Plagued by Margin Woes
Although Intel has scaled its AI footprint, it seems to lag NVIDIA on the innovation front, with the latter’s H100 and Blackwell GPUs being runaway successes. Leading technology companies are reportedly piling up NVIDIA’s GPUs to build clusters of computers for their AI work, leading to exponential revenue growth.
An accelerated ramp-up of AI PCs further affected the short-term margins of Intel as it shifted production to its high-volume facility in Ireland, where wafer costs are typically higher. Margins were also adversely impacted by higher charges related to non-core businesses, charges associated with unused capacity and an unfavorable product mix.
Bitter China Trade Ties Hurt INTC
China accounted for more than 29% of Intel's total revenues in 2024, making it the single largest market for the company. However, the communist nation's purported move to replace U.S.-made chips with domestic alternatives significantly affected INTC’s revenue prospects. The directive to phase out foreign chips from key telecom networks by 2027 underscores Beijing's accelerating efforts to reduce reliance on Western technology amid escalating U.S.-China tensions.
Moreover, weaker spending across consumer and enterprise markets, especially in China, resulted in elevated customer inventory levels, resulting in soft demand trends. Strict export control measures are likely to affect the market dynamics further, leading to below-par revenue growth in the near term.
End Note
Intel has been facing challenges due to the disruptive rise of over-the-top service providers in this dynamic industry. Price-sensitive competition for customer retention in the core business is expected to intensify in the coming days. Aggressive competition is likely to limit the ability to attract and retain customers and affect operating and financial results.
The road ahead for Intel is bumpy and strewn with daunting challenges, and how it navigates these roadblocks in the coming days remains to be seen. Intel carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Free: Instant Access to Zacks' Market-Crushing Strategies
Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.7% average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +48.4%, +50.2% and +56.7% per year.
Today you can tap into those powerful strategies – and the high-potential stocks they uncover – free. No strings attached.
Get all the details here >>
Media Contact
Zacks Investment Research
800-767-3771 ext. 9339
https://www.zacks.com
Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss.This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index.Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.