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

In the latest trading session, Western Digital (WDC) closed at $63.56, marking a -0.55% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.03%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.13%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.11%.

Heading into today, shares of the maker of hard drives for businesses and personal computers had gained 13.74% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 4.15% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.17% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from WDC as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.27, down 91.12% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $3.90 billion, down 22.39% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.04 per share and revenue of $16.56 billion. These totals would mark changes of -37.19% and -0.06%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for WDC. 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 company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. WDC is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that WDC has a Forward P/E ratio of 21.01 right now. This valuation marks a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 21.01.

Investors should also note that WDC has a PEG ratio of 10.51 right now. 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. WDC's industry had an average PEG ratio of 3.81 as of yesterday's close.

The Computer- Storage Devices industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 72, which puts it in the top 29% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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