Western Digital Corporation (WDC)

In the past six months, Western Digital's stock price has increased significantly, rising 22.56% over the past 30 days and 11.37% over the past 12 months as of June 26, 2025. Year-to-date, the shares have soared 41.22%. This was driven by strong Q3 FY25 earnings, beating EPS estimates and providing upbeat forward guidance for Q4, with projected EPS and revenue above consensus. The company authorized a new $2.0 billion share repurchase program in May 2025 and launched a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share. Analysts have shown increased confidence, with JP Morgan upgrading its outlook from Neutral to Overweight in May 2025, and Benchmark upgrading from Hold to Buy in April 2025. A U.S. judge threw out a $552.7 million patent award against the company in June 2025. Kris Sennesael was named Chief Financial Officer in May 2025, and Ahmed Shihab was named Chief Product Officer in March 2025. Western Digital completed its planned company separation in February 2025, with its flash memory business spinning off as SanDisk Corporation.

Demand seasonality can affect Western Digital's product sales, as seen in Q3 fiscal 2022 with flash for mobile and client hard drives impacting sequential revenue growth. In Q2 2025, demand exceeded supply, but the Q1 guide was expected to be down sequentially slightly, potentially due to seasonality. The Consumer segment also saw sequential declines in Q3 2025 due to lower unit shipments and a year-over-year decrease due to pricing. Sales incentive and marketing programs have historically ranged from 7% to 14% of gross revenue.

Western Digital Corporation (WDC) is an American data storage company headquartered in San Jose, California, operating primarily in the technology sector, specifically within the computer hardware and computer data storage industry. The company designs, manufactures, and markets a broad range of data storage devices and solutions, including HDDs and SSDs for various applications. It also provides flash-based embedded storage products for automotive, IoT, industrial, and connected home applications, as well as enterprise HDDs and SSDs with software solutions. The company produces external HDD storage products, client portable SSDs, removable cards, and USB flash drives, sold under the WD, WD_BLACK, and SanDisk Professional brands. Revenue is categorized into Flash and HDD segments.

Western Digital Corp. operates globally, with products sold in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the rest of Asia. The company's operations are divided into four main regions: United States, China, Rest of Asia, and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The EMEA region has historically demonstrated high asset turnover ratios, though with recent volatility and a sharp decline in 2023. China's asset turnover ratio showed a downward trend after an initial period of stability, with a significant drop in 2023. The Rest of Asia region experienced a steady decrease in its asset turnover ratio over several years.

Western Digital was recognized as one of the "2025 World's Most Ethical Companies®" for the seventh time by Ethisphere in March 2025, indicating a positive brand reputation. No significant negative events impacting its brand reputation in the past year were found.

Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) is primarily owned by institutional shareholders, who hold approximately 100.73%, 76.65% or 49.72% of the company's stock. Insiders own about 5.83% or 0.88%, while retail investors hold around 0.00% or 22.47%. Major institutional owners include Vanguard Group Inc., Blackrock Inc., Fmr LLC, Jpmorgan Chase & Co, Bank Of America Corp, UBS Group AG, State Street Corp, Geode Capital Management LLC, and Ameriprise Financial Inc. Hitachi Ltd is the largest individual shareholder, owning 12.50 million shares, representing 3.58% of the company.