Western Digital Shares Are Trading Higher On Q3 Earnings Beat, Robust Q4 Guidance - Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC)

Western Digital Corp WDC reported a third-quarter FY21 revenue decline of 1% year on year to $4.1 billion, above the analyst estimate of $3.97 billion.
Revenue from Client Devices rose 10% to $2 billion from sustained strength in the notebook and desktop PC demand and new game console ramps. Client Solutions revenue rose 8% to $888 million from strength in retail.
Data Center Devices and Solutions revenue declined 19% to $1.2 billion. However, the company noted material sequential growth with its second generation, NVMe enterprise SSD at a cloud titan. Additionally, multiple cloud customers utilized NAND flash for their consumer product lines.
The increasing momentum of energy-assisted drives and second-generation NVMe enterprise SSDs, improving NAND flash pricing trends, along with the continued accelerated digital transformation across end markets, drove the results, CEO David Goeckeler said.
Non-GAAP gross margin contracted 20 basis points to 27.7%. Non-GAAP operating income declined 4% to $412 million.
Non-GAAP EPS of $1.02 beat the analyst consensus of $0.68. Non-GAAP net income rose 24% to $318 million.
The company generated $116 million in operating cash flow. It held $2.7 billion in cash and equivalents after a $212 million debt repayment.
Guidance: Q4 2021 revenue guidance lies between $4.40 billion and $4.60 billion, above the analyst estimate of $4.26 billion. The non-GAAP EPS outlook lies between $1.30 and $1.60, above the analyst estimate of $1.02.
Price action: WDC shares traded higher by 4.81% at $74.55 in the premarket session on the last check Friday.

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