Western Digital beats Q2 amid demand for data storage products

Investing.com -- Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit and revenue and forecast a stronger-than-expected third quarter, helped by demand from cloud customers expanding data center capacity to support Ai workloads. Shares of Western Digital rose about 2% in extended trading.

The data storage maker reported Q2 earnings of $2.13 per share, topping analysts’ estimates of $1.91. Revenue rose to $3.1 billion, above the $2.92 billion consensus.

Western Digital forecast earnings of $2.15 to $2.45 per share for the third quarter, compared with analysts’ expectations of $1.99. It sees revenue of $3.1 billion to $3.3 billion, also ahead of the $2.98 billion consensus.

The results come as Western Digital has benefited from rising demand for high-capacity hard disk drives used in data centers that support advanced AI models. Cloud providers have been expanding capacity to meet growing computing needs, lifting demand for storage infrastructure.

Chief Executive Irving Tan said the quarter reflected disciplined execution and customer confidence in Western Digital’s ability to deliver high-capacity hard disk drives at scale.

He said the company posted strong revenue growth and gross margin expansion, generated solid free cash flow, and returned more than 100% of that free cash flow to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.

Western Digital shares have risen roughly six-fold over the past year, driven by demand from cloud customers seeking to scale data center build-outs during the surge in AI investment. Large technology companies, including Microsoft and Meta, have said they plan to continue heavy spending on data centers this year, supporting demand for storage hardware.

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