$WDC,...Western Digital +3.5% on FQ2 beat, better-than-feared guidance
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) guided on its FQ2 CC for FQ3 revenue of $3.6B-$3.7B and EPS of $1.90-$2.00, mostly below a consensus of $3.73 and $1.99. With shares having already plunged over the last two days due to Seagate's outlook and Microsoft's numbers, investors are giving the hard drive giant a pass.
FQ2 gross margin was 30.5%, up from 30.1% in FQ1 and the year-ago period, and above guidance for GM to be flat Q/Q. Western is also guiding for GM to be roughly flat Q/Q in FQ3.
Notably, Western puts the total addressable market for hard drives in calendar Q4 at 140.8M units, less than the 144M-145M estimated by Seagate. That implies an FQ2 share of 43.4%, down from 44% in FQ1 and 44.4% a year ago. Average shipped drive capacity rose to 1.09TB from 1.00TB in FQ1 and 874GB a year ago. ASP was at $60.
$309M was spent on buybacks, boosting EPS. R&D spend rose 2% to $426M, and SG&A spend 27% to $164M
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