Western Digital (WD) is transforming itself into an AI infrastructure kingpin, moving beyond its traditional markets to capture its share of spending frenzy. The company, which is ditching its legacy nameplate and rebranding as WD, recently announced its second-quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings, sparking bullish sentiment from analysts and boosting investor confidence this week. WD also reinforced its optimism on accelerating hard disk drive (HDD) demand from AI-heavy data centers. In its earnings report ...

Q2FY26 Financial Results Western Digital January 29, 2026 2 WESTERN DIGITAL CORPORATION © 2026 WESTERN DIGITAL CORPORATION OR ITS AFFILIATES ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Disclaimers Forward-Looking Statements This presentation contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, including statements regarding expectations for: the company's business outlook and financial performance for the fiscal third quarter of 2026 and beyond, and demand and market conditions for our products and gr ...

Core Viewpoint - Western Digital (WDC) shares are experiencing gains following positive Q2 results and guidance from competitor Seagate Technology, indicating a bullish sentiment in the market for WDC stock [1]. Company Performance - WDC stock is currently trading at approximately 9 times its price from April 2025, suggesting a favorable valuation [2]. - The company is expected to report a profit of $1.83 per share for its fiscal Q4, reflecting an 18% year-over-year increase [6]. - WDC's shares are above major moving averages (50-day, 100-day, 200-day), indicating strong bullish control across multiple timeframes [6]. Industry Context - The storage industry is facing a genuine supply crunch, which is creating pricing power and margin expansion opportunities for well-positioned manufacturers like WDC [5]. - The adoption of AI data centers is driving demand for WDC's products, with customer commitments extending into 2027 [3]. Technological Advancements - WDC is developing its Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology, which is entering customer qualification this year and is expected to begin volume production in the first half of 2027 [3]. - Current products, ePMR and UltraSMR, are gaining market share due to their reliability and cost efficiency [4]. Market Sentiment - Wall Street remains bullish on WDC, with a consensus rating of "Strong Buy" and price targets reaching as high as $300, indicating a potential upside of 7% from current levels [7].

Core Insights - Western Digital Corporation (WDC) is experiencing significant gross margin expansion due to a favorable product mix, healthy pricing dynamics, disciplined cost controls, and improved operational efficiencies, with a non-GAAP gross margin of 43.9% in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, marking a 660 basis points year-over-year improvement and a 260 basis points sequential increase [1][8] Group 1: Margin and Revenue Growth - The transition towards higher-capacity nearline hard disk drives (HDDs), particularly advanced ePMR and UltraSMR products, is a key driver of margin strength, with shipments reaching 204 exabytes, a 23% increase year-over-year [2] - The company expects non-GAAP gross margin for the second quarter of fiscal 2026 to be in the range of 44-45%, indicating further sequential improvement, alongside projected non-GAAP revenues of $2.9 billion, a 20% increase year-over-year [5][8] Group 2: Customer Demand and Product Development - All top seven customers have placed purchase orders extending through the first half of 2026, with one major hyperscale customer securing supply through 2027, indicating strong demand for next-generation HAMR drives [3] - The accelerating adoption of AI and data-intensive workloads among hyperscale customers is driving robust demand for WDC's solutions, with significant shipments of the latest ePMR products exceeding 2.2 million units in the September quarter [2] Group 3: Cost Management and Pricing - Pricing conditions have been supportive, with modest low-single-digit increases in average selling price (ASP) per terabyte on both a sequential and year-over-year basis, while the company continues to achieve mid- to high-single-digit cost reductions per terabyte [4] - Management highlighted disciplined cost controls and operational execution as key factors underpinning margin expansion [4] Group 4: Competitive Landscape - Competitors like Seagate Technology and Micron Technology are also experiencing margin expansion, driven by strong demand in the cloud and AI-driven markets, with Seagate reporting a non-GAAP gross margin of 40.1% and Micron achieving a gross margin of 45.7% [6][7]

Summary of Western Digital Conference Call Company Overview - **Company**: Western Digital (NasdaqGS: WDC) - **Date**: December 02, 2025 - **Focus**: Data storage solutions, particularly hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD) Key Industry Insights - **Market Growth**: Exabyte demand is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15% under base case scenarios, driven by cloud growth, and potentially 23% if AI growth materializes [2][3] - **Current Performance**: Recent growth rates are around mid-20s%, with exabytes growing at 30% year-on-year [2][3] Pricing Strategy - **Pricing Environment**: The pricing environment is stable, with low single-digit increases year-over-year on a dollar per terabyte basis, contrasting with historical ASP erosion of approximately 7% [5][7] - **Value Proposition**: The company focuses on delivering better total cost of ownership (TCO) through higher capacity drives and innovations that improve throughput [4][5] Customer Contracts and Demand - **Long-term Contracts**: Firm purchase orders from five major customers for all of 2026, with one customer extending to 2027 [3][7] - **Capacity Management**: The company is not expanding unit capacity but is focusing on increasing drive density and transitioning customers to higher capacity drives [21][22] Technology and Product Development - **HAMR and ePMR Roadmap**: The qualification for HAMR (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording) is being accelerated, with plans to introduce 36TB CMR and 44TB Ultra SMR HAMR drives in 2026 [10][19] - **Adoption of Ultra SMR**: 50% of nearline bits shipped last quarter were on Ultra SMR technology, which provides a 20% capacity uplift [9][12] Competitive Landscape - **Market Position**: Western Digital maintains a competitive stance against peers, focusing on technology advancements and customer partnerships [26][27] - **HDD vs. SSD Demand**: Both HDD and SSD demands are increasing, with HDDs expected to store 75%-80% of data due to their TCO benefits [22][23] Financial Performance - **Gross Margin Expansion**: Gross margins have improved significantly, moving from the 20s to mid-40s percentage points, with expectations for further growth [31][32] - **Free Cash Flow**: The company has a strong free cash flow margin, exceeding 20%, and is actively returning cash to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks [41][42] Strategic Considerations - **Independence Post-Split**: The company has benefited from being independent, allowing for focused strategies on HDD and SSD businesses [24][25] - **Risk Management**: The company monitors customer demand signals, CapEx spending, and data center builds to manage supply effectively [37][39] Conclusion Western Digital is positioned for continued growth in the data storage market, leveraging strong customer relationships, innovative technology, and a stable pricing environment to meet increasing demand for exabyte-scale storage solutions.

Core Insights - Western Digital Corporation's (WDC) shares have surged 114.1% in the past three months, significantly outperforming the Zacks Computer-Storage Devices industry and the S&P 500 [1][9] - The rapid growth of AI is driving strong demand for high-capacity storage solutions, leading to record shipment levels and improved gross margins for WDC [1][10] Performance Comparison - WDC has outperformed competitors like Seagate Technology Holdings plc (STX) and Micron Technology (MU), which saw stock increases of 65.5% and 98.3% respectively, but lagged behind Sandisk Corporation (SNDK), which rose 496.4% [2] - The company reported a 52-week high stock price of $178.45, raising questions about future upside potential [5] Business Strategy and Market Position - WDC has separated its HDD and Flash businesses into two independent companies to enhance focus on their respective markets [4] - As a leader in HDD technology, WDC is positioned to meet the increasing data storage demands driven by AI, with a year-over-year revenue growth of 27% and a net income growth of 137% for fiscal 2026 [6] Demand Drivers - The demand for high-capacity storage is being fueled by the rise of AI, with WDC's ePMR and UltraSMR products seeing significant uptake [9][11] - The company is expanding its ePMR technology and advancing manufacturing processes to meet the growing exabyte demand [11][12] Financial Performance - WDC reported a non-GAAP gross margin of 43.9% in the fiscal first quarter, with expectations for 44-45% in the second quarter [14][15] - The company generated $672 million in operating cash flow and repurchased 6.4 million shares for $553 million, reflecting strong financial execution [16] Future Outlook - WDC anticipates ongoing revenue growth driven by strong data center demand and the adoption of high-capacity drives [13] - The company has a solid order pipeline extending through 2027, with all major customers placing orders, indicating confidence in its product roadmap [12][21] Valuation Metrics - WDC's shares are trading at a price/earnings ratio of 20.24, which is lower than the industry average of 20.38 but above its historical mean of 9.74 [20] Estimate Revisions - The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WDC's earnings for fiscal 2026 has increased by 13.2% to $7.38, while the estimate for fiscal 2027 has risen by 37.2% to $9.84 [19]

Financial Performance Highlights - Revenue reached $2.8 billion, exceeding the high end of guidance[5] - Non-GAAP gross margin was 43.9%, a year-over-year increase of 660 basis points[5, 10] - Non-GAAP operating margin was 30.4%, a year-over-year increase of 1200 basis points[5, 10] - Non-GAAP EPS was $1.78, also above the high end of guidance[5] - Cash flow from operations was $672 million[5] - Free cash flow was $599 million[5] Capital Allocation - Share repurchases increased to $553 million[5] - Dividend increased to $0.125 per share[5] Revenue Breakdown - Cloud revenue was $2.51 billion in Q1FY26[13] - Total revenue in Q1FY26 was $2.818 billion, a 27% increase year-over-year[10, 13] Q2FY26 Guidance (Non-GAAP) - Revenue is expected to be $2.9 billion, plus or minus $100 million[11] - Diluted EPS is projected at $1.88, plus or minus $0.15[11]