Western Digital Corporation · WDC · FY2026 Q4 · Calendar Q3 2026

Western Digital: AI Storage Demand Supports Raised Outlook

The quarter supports the view that resilient AI and cloud-storage demand can drive Western Digital's growth over the next year. Evidence includes strong exabyte shipments, a raised outlook, long-term contracts, and a capacity-drive roadmap; the main counterweights are pricing durability, transition execution, and hyperscale concentration.

Reported After market closeNASDAQTechnology $154.48B market cap
100quality score

Earnings scorecard

Reported versus consensus
Reported EPS $3.56 Consensus $3.31
EPS surprise +7.6% Reported versus consensus
Reported revenue $3.75B Consensus $3.70B
Revenue surprise +1.3% Reported versus consensus

Market reaction

event-close to next-session close
Stock move -5.4% Event window
SPY move -0.2% Same window
Abnormal move -5.2% Stock minus SPY
Volume 1.3× Versus trailing sessions
Subsequent drift -13.5% Up to 20 sessions
WDCSPY benchmark

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Transcript intelligence

What changed

Compared with the prior quarter, management raised its guidance sentiment and provided a more detailed next-generation drive roadmap, including 44-TB HAMR, 40-TB ePMR, and a future 50-TB product. The current analysis also highlights 231 exabytes shipped in Q4, up 22% year over year, and continued confidence in AI- and cloud-driven demand.

Guidance delta

Raised: management described a robust Q1 FY27 outlook with anticipated 45% revenue growth, expanding margins, and continued shareholder returns.

Key takeaways

  • AI and cloud demand remained the central growth driver, with management citing 231 exabytes shipped in Q4, up 22% year over year.
  • The product roadmap—44-TB HAMR, 40-TB ePMR, UltraSMR, and high-bandwidth HDDs—targets higher capacity and improved cost-per-terabyte economics.
  • Long-term contracts and demand from AI, physical AI, and hyperscale customers support visibility, but customer concentration and execution remain important risks.

Management priorities

  • Ramp 40-TB ePMR and expand UltraSMR adoption toward about 60% of nearline shipments by fiscal 2027.
  • Ship 44-TB HAMR drives in the first half of calendar 2027 and continue development toward 50-TB drives in the second half of calendar 2027.
  • Maintain shareholder returns while sampling high-bandwidth HDDs and serving hyperscale and emerging AI-storage demand.

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Earnings History

Estimate Beat Miss Match
WDC REVENUE earnings history estimate and actual scatter chart 9 reported fiscal quarters and 4 future estimate-only quarters. Q3 '24 estimate $3B Q3 '24 actual $3B, beat Q4 '24 estimate $4B Q4 '24 actual $4B, beat Q1 '25 estimate $4B Q1 '25 actual $4B, miss Q4 '25 estimate $2B Q4 '25 actual $3B, beat Q1 '26 estimate $3B Q1 '26 actual $3B, beat Q2 '26 estimate $3B Q2 '26 actual $3B, beat Q3 '26 estimate $3B Q3 '26 actual $3B, beat Q4 '26 estimate $4B Q4 '26 actual $4B, beat Q1 '27 estimate $4B Q2 '27 estimate $5B Q3 '27 estimate $5B Q4 '27 estimate $5B
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Analyst Consensus ?

ConsensusBuy59 ratings
Bullish4372.9%
Neutral1525.4%
Bearish11.7%

1 unmapped firm rating excluded from the percentages.

Analyst 52W Price Targets

$448.17Previous close
$50Low
$299.61Average
$1,050High

Latest persisted target per named analyst; persisted previous close from FN2's market snapshot as of Sep 22, 2026. Not an FN2 forecast.

Firm-level rating actions

FMP grade actions identify the grading firm, not a named analyst.

FirmRatingPrior ratingActionDate
Citigroup Buy BuyMaintainAug 7, 2026
UBS Neutral NeutralMaintainAug 6, 2026
TD Cowen Buy BuyMaintainAug 6, 2026
Rosenblatt Buy BuyMaintainAug 6, 2026
Wells Fargo Overweight OverweightMaintainJul 10, 2026
Show 55 more rating actions

Named analyst price targets

Upside is calculated against the persisted previous close $448.17. FMP does not supply a rating on these named-analyst rows.

FirmAnalyst52W targetPrice when postedUpsideDate
Morgan StanleyAnalyst unavailable$676$460.47 +50.8%Aug 6, 2026
Robert W. BairdAnalyst unavailable$630$466.24 +40.6%Aug 6, 2026
Mizuho SecuritiesAnalyst unavailable$590$519.17 +31.6%Aug 6, 2026
UBSTimothy Arcuri$525$519.17 +17.1%Aug 6, 2026
UBSAnalyst unavailable$560$558.36 +25.0%Jul 13, 2026
See 110 more

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Company context

Snapshot as of publication

Western Digital Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets a broad range of data storage devices and software solutions across the United States, China, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the rest of Asia, serving an international market. The company's product lineup includes client devices such as hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing platforms like desktops, notebooks, smart video systems, gaming consoles, and set-top boxes. They also provide flash-based embedded storage solutions for mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and various portable and wearable technologies, extending into automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), industrial, and connected home applications. Additionally, Western Digital produces flash-based memory wafers.…

Historical context

All WDC earnings

Technology peers this season

Latest reports in the same sector
CompanyQuarterEPS surpriseMarket moveHeadline
ADBE Adobe Inc. FY2026 Q3 · Calendar Q3 2026 +0.8% +1.4% Adobe raises FY26 outlook as AI strategy broadens
ORCL Oracle Corporation FY2027 Q1 · Calendar Q3 2026 +10.3% -1.7% Oracle raises FY27 outlook as AI demand accelerates cloud growth
SAIL SailPoint, Inc. FY2027 Q2 · Calendar Q3 2026 +13.8% -1.2% SailPoint pairs 25% ARR growth with accelerating AI-driven adoption
CIEN Ciena Corporation FY2026 Q3 · Calendar Q3 2026 +22.0% -10.4% Ciena raises outlook as AI networking demand lifts backlog
DOCU DocuSign, Inc. FY2027 Q2 · Calendar Q3 2026 +6.4% +3.7% DocuSign Q2 FY27: IAM momentum supports a raised outlook
IOT Samsara Inc. FY2027 Q2 · Calendar Q3 2026 +25.0% +3.7% Samsara: AI adoption expands as FY27 guidance holds

Latest beats and misses

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Sources

  1. Earnings call transcript and parsed analysis · 2026-08-07T21:15:39.606252+00:00
  2. FN2 earnings calendar · 2026-09-09T01:23:14.388487+00:00
  3. Polygon adjusted daily market bars · 2026-09-22T07:40:51.259890+00:00
  4. Financial Modeling Prep analyst price-target consensus and quote snapshot · 2026-09-22T07:40:51.257166+00:00

Methodology

Reported and consensus figures come from FN2's earnings event records. Market reaction and volume are calculated from daily adjusted bars around the event; abnormal move subtracts the SPY move over the same window.

Analyst target low, average, and high values are derived at request time from each named analyst's latest persisted FMP target. The current-price marker comes from FN2's persisted market snapshot. They are sell-side estimates, not an FN2 valuation or recommendation.

Transcript intelligence is a structured synthesis of the current and prior earnings-call analyses. Missing values stay missing and are never estimated.

By FN2 Research · Updated . For educational purposes only; not investment advice.