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Western Digital (WDC) Stock Declines While Market Improves: Some Information for Investors

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Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) closed at $125.28 in the latest trading session, marking a -4.59% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.37% gain on the day. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 0.14%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 0.71%.

Shares of the maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers have appreciated by 42.67% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 8.04%, and the S&P 500's gain of 4.26%.

Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Western Digital in its upcoming earnings disclosure. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $1.58, marking a 11.24% fall compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $2.7 billion, indicating a 34.03% decline compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $6.62 per share and a revenue of $10.92 billion, signifying shifts of +34.28% and -17.76%, respectively, from the last year.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Western Digital. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.74% higher. Western Digital currently has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking at its valuation, Western Digital is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 19.84. This valuation marks no noticeable deviation compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 19.84.

We can additionally observe that WDC currently boasts a PEG ratio of 1.02. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Computer- Storage Devices industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.08.

The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 86, finds itself in the top 35% echelons 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.

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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