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Western Digital (WDC) Suffers a Larger Drop Than the General Market: Key Insights

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Western Digital (WDC - Free Report) closed at $64.05 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.67% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.21%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw a downswing of 0.14%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 0.05%.

Shares of the maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers witnessed a gain of 1.85% over the previous month, trailing the performance of the Computer and Technology sector with its gain of 9.62% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.94%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Western Digital in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.72, up 197.73% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.11 billion, up 49.5% from the prior-year quarter.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $8.35 per share and a revenue of $17.13 billion, signifying shifts of +4275% and +31.77%, respectively, from the last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Western Digital should also be noted by investors. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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, 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 last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained unchanged. Western Digital is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Western Digital has a Forward P/E ratio of 7.72 right now. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.12.

The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 46, putting it in the top 19% 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.

Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.


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