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Western Digital (WDC) Dips More Than Broader Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest close session, Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) was down 8.6% at $251.67. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 0.4%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.11%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.73%.

The maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers's stock has dropped by 1.56% in the past month, exceeding the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 8.37% and the S&P 500's loss of 7.34%.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Western Digital in its forthcoming earnings report. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $2.34, marking a 72.06% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $3.23 billion, showing a 40.72% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $8.96 per share and revenue of $12.43 billion, which would represent changes of +81.74% and -6.38%, respectively, from the prior year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Western Digital. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. At present, Western Digital boasts a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

In terms of valuation, Western Digital is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 30.73. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 12.86.

One should further note that WDC currently holds a PEG ratio of 0.6. 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. The Computer- Storage Devices industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.28 as of yesterday's close.

The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 22, this industry ranks in the top 9% of all industries, numbering over 250.

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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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