Spinoff Spotlight: Western Digital Corp.

Article Excerpt

WESTERN DIGITAL CORP. $70 is a hold. The company (Nasdaq symbol WDC; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 326.5 million; Market cap: $22.9 billion; No dividend paid; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.westerndigital.com) plans to spin off its flash memory business (which represents about half of Western Digital’s revenue) to its shareholders as a tax-deferred dividend. The remaining operations will make computer hard drives. The company should complete the transaction in the first quarter of 2025. In its fiscal 2025 first quarter, ended September 27, 2024, Western Digital’s revenue rose 48.9%, to $4.10 billion from $2.75 billion a year earlier. That gain reflects higher sales to datacentre operators. If you exclude unusual items, the company earned $1.78 a share (or a total of $634 million) in the quarter. That a big improvement over the year-earlier loss of $1.76 a share (or $569 million). The stock trades at 9.4 times the company’s full-year earnings forecast of $7.49 a share. That low p/e reflects the cyclical demand for its products, which…