# Western Digital Corp. (WDC) — Stock CV

Western Digital Corp. is a $148B technology company. Revenue grew 35.7% over the last year, and it keeps 73¢ of every dollar of sales as profit. It trades at 14.6× earnings.

> Western Digital is a leading vertically integrated supplier of hard disk drives. The HDD market is a practical duopoly, with Western Digital and Seagate being the two largest players.

## Identity

- **Ticker**: WDC
- **Sector**: Technology
- **Industry**: Computer Storage Devices
- **Headquarters**: SAN JOSE, CA
- **Employees**: 40 000
- **Website**: https://www.westerndigital.com
- **Market cap**: $148B
- **Last price**: $395.78
- **Financial profile**: Strained

## Vitals (TTM)

- **Revenue**: $12.9B
- **Net income**: $9.42B
- **Free cash flow**: $3.51B
- **P/E**: 14.6
- **Revenue growth (YoY)**: 35.7%

## Skills (profile scores, 0–100)

| Pillar | Score |
|---|---|
| Valuation | 20 |
| Growth | 50 |
| Profitability | 75 |
| Health | 22 |
| Quality | 35 |
| Moat | 24 |

## Qualifications (beginner checklist) — 9 of 11 passed

- [x] Revenue growing — +35.7% YoY
- [x] Profitable — $9.42B TTM
- [x] Profit growing — +56.1% YoY
- [x] Generates cash — $3.51B TTM
- [x] Debt under control — current ratio 1.33
- [x] Established company — $148B market cap
- [ ] Not printing shares — +25.6% shares over ~5y
- [x] Proven track record — 7/11 profitable years
- [ ] Financially stable — health score 22/100
- [x] Pays a dividend — yield 0.13%
- [x] Valuation not extreme — P/E 14.6

## Experience (career milestones)

- **FY2026** — Best year on record: $9.42B net income
- **2023** — Merger talks with Kioxia resumed in 2023, but the merger was called off after Kioxia's largest shareholder Bain…
- **2016** — Western Digital acquired SanDisk for US$19 billion
- **FY2016** — First recorded profitable year: $242M net income
- **FY2016** — Revenue already above $10B: $13.0B in first reported year
- **2012** — Western Digital completed the acquisition of HGST and became the largest traditional hard drive…
- **Oct 7, 2007** — Western Digital released several editions of a single 1 TB hard drive, the largest in its My…
- **2001** — Western Digital became the first manufacturer to offer mainstream ATA hard disk drives with 8 MiB of disk…
- **1986** — That controller, the WD1003, became the basis of the ATA interface (which Western Digital developed along with…
- **1977** — Chuck Missler joined Western Digital as chairman and chief executive in June 1977
- **1976** — The oil crisis of the mid-1970s and the bankruptcy of its biggest calculator customer, Bowmar Instrument, changed…
- **1971** — It adopted its current name and soon introduced its first product, the WD1402A UART
- **1970** — Established in 1970, the company is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives (HDDs)

## Strengths

- High gross margin (48.9%)
- Strongly profitable — 72.9% net margin
- Revenue growing 35.7% year over year
- Strong cash conversion — FCF is 27.2% of revenue

## Watch-outs

- Loss-making in 4 of the recent years

## Track record

| Year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2022 | $18.8B | $1.50B | $758M |
| FY2023 | $12.3B | -$1.71B | -$1.23B |
| FY2024 | $13.0B | -$798M | -$781M |
| FY2025 | $9.52B | $1.89B | $1.28B |
| FY2026 | $12.9B | $9.42B | $3.51B |

---

Source: https://stockcv.com/WDC — derived from company filings; may be delayed or incomplete. Information, not investment advice.