Western Digital (WDC) closed the most recent trading day at $343.43, moving +1.64% from the previous trading session. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.11%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.56%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.35%.
Coming into today, shares of the maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers had gained 29.37% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 0.88%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.51%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Western Digital in its upcoming release. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $2.34, indicating a 72.06% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $3.23 billion, reflecting a 40.71% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
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 -6.39%, respectively, from the prior year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Western Digital should also be noted by investors. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. 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, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.04% higher. Right now, Western Digital possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Western Digital is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 37.69. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 12.02.
We can additionally observe that WDC currently boasts a PEG ratio of 0.74. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. The Computer- Storage Devices industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.34 as of yesterday's close.
The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 55, finds itself in the top 23% echelons of all 250+ industries.
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.
Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.
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Western Digital Corporation (WDC): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).