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Western Digital (WDC) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

Western Digital (WDC) closed at $38.40 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.7% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.28%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.24%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.72%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers had lost 34.61% over the past month. This has lagged the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 12.66% and the S&P 500's loss of 16.08% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from WDC as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.94, up 452.94% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $4.20 billion, up 14.18% from the year-ago period.

WDC's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.13 per share and revenue of $16.76 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -35.33% and +1.16%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for WDC should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 7.07% lower within the past month. WDC is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, WDC is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 12.37. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 11.11, so we one might conclude that WDC is trading at a premium comparatively.

The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 31, which puts it in the top 13% 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.

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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