At a glance
Western Digital Corporation is worth $126.74B, about 14 times its fiscal 2026 earnings. Revenue grew 35.7% to $12.92B in fiscal 2026, with 72.9% kept as profit; over 3 years it has grown 27.4% a year. It pays a 0.17% dividend yield, and returned $2.96B to shareholders in dividends and buybacks over FY2022–FY2026. The stock returned +125.8% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +52.2% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 58.0% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 52.4% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 11 months and 18 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
Western Digital makes hard disk drives (HDDs), which store data as magnetic patterns on spinning disks. The company was founded in 1970 and is based in San Jose, California. It designs and makes nearly all of the recording heads and magnetic media inside its drives. Advances in those parts let it fit more data onto each drive, which lowers costs over time. It holds about 4,700 active patents. Its main competitors are Seagate and Toshiba, plus suppliers of NAND flash memory, which is another way to store data.
In the fiscal year ended July 3, 2026, Western Digital's revenue was $12.9 billion. Its Cloud end market brought in $11.5 billion of that, or 89%. Cloud means high-capacity drives for data centers run by cloud, internet and social media companies, and for enterprise customers. Drives for desktop and notebook computers made up 5.6% of revenue, and external drives offered to consumers through retailers made up 5.4%. Revenue depends on a small group of buyers: the top 10 customers accounted for 73% of revenue, and three of them each accounted for at least 10%.
By region, the United States accounted for 40% of revenue, China 19.7%, Hong Kong 11.5%, and the Europe, Middle East and Africa region 16.4%. Western Digital has completed the separation of Sandisk. Revenue from fiscal 2023 onward was restated in later filings, so older years don't compare directly.
Price history
The interactive chart needs JavaScript.
WDC +125.8% over the year to Nov 2, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| Cloud | $11.49B | 88.9% |
| Client Devices | $726.0M | 5.6% |
| Consumer | $703.0M | 5.4% |
By geography
| United States | $5.17B | 40% |
| China | $2.54B | 19.7% |
| Europe, Middle East and Africa | $2.11B | 16.4% |
| Hong Kong | $1.49B | 11.5% |
| Rest of Asia | $1.09B | 8.5% |
| Other | $513.0M | 4% |
Latest results
- In Q1 FY2027 (ended Oct 2, 2026), revenue was $4.38B, up 55.5% from a year earlier, and net income was $1.78B (+50.5%).
- For fiscal 2026, revenue was $12.92B (+35.7% year over year; +27.4% a year from FY2023 to FY2026) with a 72.9% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2023–FY2026) | +27.4% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 34.5% good |
| Free cash flow margin | 27.2% good |
| Return on equity (FY2026) | 106.3% good |
| Return on assets (FY2026) | 68% good |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $262.0M good |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2021 | $16.92B | $821.0M | $752.0M |
| FY2022 | $18.79B | $1.55B | $758.0M |
| FY2023 | $6.25B | $-1.68B | $-1.23B |
| FY2024 | $6.32B | $-798.0M | $-781.0M |
| FY2025 | $9.52B | $1.89B | $1.28B |
| FY2026 | $12.92B | $9.42B | $3.51B |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $126.74B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 13.9 |
| Dividend yield | 0.17% |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
Western Digital’s market value went from $14.66B at the end of 2016 to $126.74B on Nov 2, 2026, about 8.6 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is up 115%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 2, 2026 | $126.74B | +115.2% |
| 2025 | $58.90B | +278.0% |
| 2024 | $15.58B | +21.4% |
| 2023 | $12.83B | +69.4% |
| 2022 | $7.58B | -50.7% |
| 2021 | $15.36B | +20.6% |
| 2020 | $12.74B | -10.7% |
| 2019 | $14.27B | +76.4% |
| 2018 | $8.09B | -54.5% |
| 2017 | $17.78B | +21.3% |
| 2016 | $14.66B |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WDC price data to Nov 2, 2026 | +96.8% | +125.8% | +120.2% | +52.2% | +24.8% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +96.8% |
| 2025 | +283.6% |
| 2024 | +13.9% |
| 2023 | +66.0% |
| 2022 | -51.6% |
| 2021 | +17.7% |
| 2020 | -10.9% |
| 2019 | +77.0% |
| 2018 | -51.9% |
| 2017 | +19.8% |
| 2016 | +17.5% |
| 2015 | -44.1% |
| 2014 | +34.0% |
| 2013 | +101.5% |
| 2012 | +39.1% |
| 2011 | -8.7% |
| 2010 | -23.2% |
| 2009 | +285.6% |
| 2008 | -62.1% |
| 2007 | +47.6% |
| 2006 | +9.9% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 42.8% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 75.2%, back to its old high 12.8 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 50.6% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 58%, back to its old high 11.1 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 48% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 52.4%, back to its old high 17.9 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-31 to 2026-10-31 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 20 sales ($6.1M), 16 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 31, 2026 | Stephanie A Streeter Director | sell | $897K |
| Aug 31, 2026 | Stephanie A Streeter Director | sell | $894K |
| Sep 4, 2026 | Vidyadhara K Gubbi Chief of Global Operations | sell | $825K |
| Sep 1, 2026 | Stephanie A Streeter Director | sell | $728K |
| Aug 27, 2026 | Cynthia L Tregillis Chief Legal Officer & Corp Sec | sell (plan) | $482K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| Vanguard Capital Management | 7.49% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| FMR LLC | 7.2% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. | 5.3% | Mar 31, 2025 |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | 3.6% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| MANAGED ACCOUNT ADVISORS LLC | 2.6% | Dec 31, 2025 |
ETFs with the most weight in WDC
| FCLD Fidelity Cloud Computing ETF | 1.96% |
| FXL First Trust Technology AlphaDEX Fund | 1.6% |
| RSPT Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Technology ETF | 1.25% |
| QQQJ Invesco NASDAQ Next Gen 100 ETF | 0.88% |
| PEXL Pacer US Export Leaders ETF | 0.86% |
| SPHB Invesco S&P 500® High Beta ETF | 0.73% |
| NUMV Nuveen ESG Mid-Cap Value ETF | 0.73% |
| RSPE Invesco ESG S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF | 0.46% |
What could go wrong
- Reliance on a few cloud giants. Cloud made up 89% of revenue in the fiscal year ended July 3, 2026, and the top 10 customers made up 73%. If big data-center operators cut AI spending or push prices down, results could suffer.
- Risky shift to new recording technology. Its plan for bigger drives includes a move to heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). If it can't make the new drives efficiently, customer testing drags or launches slip, margins and competitiveness could suffer.
- Boom-and-bust swings in demand and pricing. The storage industry is cyclical, meaning sales and prices rise and fall in waves. The company says demand is hard to forecast. Its shares fell more than 50% in 2008, 2018 and 2022.
- Substitutes could cut demand for hard drives. NAND flash memory suppliers offer another way to store data. The company warns that new products could make its drives obsolete. More efficient ways to store data, or a shift away from cloud, could also slow demand.
- Tariffs and heavy exposure to China. China accounted for 19.7% of revenue and Hong Kong for 11.5% in the fiscal year ended July 3, 2026. Changes in U.S. trade policy, tariffs or retaliation by other countries could hurt results.
- Tax risk from the Sandisk separation. If the completed separation of Sandisk failed to qualify as generally tax-free for U.S. federal income tax purposes, both Western Digital and its shareholders could face significant tax liabilities.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released
- Investor presentation or announcement; Other company announcement
- Unregistered sale of shares; Other company announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Other company announcement
- Unregistered sale of shares; Other company announcement
- Executive or board change; Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Bylaws or fiscal year changed; Other company announcement
- Change to shareholder rights
For income and retirement investors
Western Digital pays a very small dividend. It paid nothing from fiscal 2021 through 2024. It then paid $0.10 per share in fiscal 2025 and $0.50 in fiscal 2026, which appears to include a special dividend. It has raised its dividend in only one year. The yield was 0.14% as of October 28, 2026. Fiscal 2026 dividends used 1.8% of earnings and 5% of free cash flow (cash left after capital spending). Share buybacks were far larger, at $2.6 billion, yet the share count rose about 20% from October 2021 to October 2026. An income investor's return would come almost entirely from the share price.
Past downturns hit the shares hard. They fell 75% in the 2008 financial crisis, 58% in the 2020 COVID crash and 52% in the 2022 bear market. After each low, they took about 13, 11 and 18 months to get back to their earlier peak. As a single stock, Western Digital carries more risk than a diversified fund.
Questions investors ask
How does Western Digital make money?
Mostly by supplying high-capacity hard disk drives to cloud data centers. In the fiscal year ended July 3, 2026, Cloud brought in $11.5 billion of the company's $12.9 billion in revenue, about 89%. Drives for desktop and notebook computers made up 5.6%, and external drives for consumers made up 5.4%. Revenue grew 35.7% that year. In the quarter ended October 2, 2026, revenue rose 55.5% from a year earlier to $4.4 billion.
Does Western Digital pay a dividend?
Yes, but a small one. It paid nothing from fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2024. It then paid $0.10 per share in fiscal 2025 and $0.50 in fiscal 2026. The fiscal 2026 figure appears to include a special dividend, so that level may not repeat. The yield was 0.14% as of October 28, 2026. The company returns much more cash through share buybacks. In fiscal 2026 it spent $2.6 billion on buybacks, compared with $174 million on dividends.
Is Sandisk still part of Western Digital?
No. Western Digital's annual report for the year ended July 3, 2026, says the separation of Sandisk is complete, and the company now focuses on hard disk drives. Revenue from fiscal 2023 onward was restated in later filings, so it doesn't compare directly with earlier years. Revenue was $18.8 billion in fiscal 2022 on the old basis and $6.3 billion in fiscal 2023 on the new one. The company warns that if the separation failed to qualify as generally tax-free, it and its shareholders could face significant tax bills.
Is Western Digital stock volatile?
Yes, very. As of October 28, 2026, its one-year beta was 3.16. Beta compares a stock's moves with the overall market's, so 3.16 means it tended to move about three times as much as the market. Calendar-year returns have ranged from a 62.1% loss in 2008 to a 285.6% gain in 2009. The shares fell 51.6% in 2022, then gained 283.7% in 2025. In about 21 years of price history, the largest fall from a peak was 75.2%.
What is Western Digital's P/E ratio?
It was 16.3 as of October 28, 2026, based on fiscal 2026 earnings of $24.28 per share. The company's market value was about $148 billion. The P/E (price-to-earnings ratio) compares the share price with a year's profit per share. Fiscal 2026 net income of $9.4 billion was more than twice operating income of $4.5 billion. That means items outside day-to-day operations added to profit. If those items don't repeat, the P/E would be higher at the same share price.