Western Digital Stock Falls After CEO Flags Flash Pricing Headwinds: Retail Mood Stays Cautious

Western Digital Corp. ($WDC) shares slumped over 5% on Thursday after CEO David Goeckeler hinted at more pricing headwinds than expected in the December quarter.

The executive was speaking at the Barclays 22nd Annual Global Technology Conference on Thursday, 

San Jose, California-based Western Digital, a provider of data storage devices and solutions, expects the NAND pricing challenges to persist into the March quarter. NAND is a type of flash memory used in devices including smartphones, portable SSDs, internal SSDs and memory cards. 

The company's quarterly results for the fiscal year 2025 first quarter reported in late-October were mixed, with the top line missing expectations, while the non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) exceeded estimates. Cloud business, representing 54% of the total revenue, saw strong increases sequentially and year-over-year due to nearline HDD shipments and enterprise SDD bit shipments to data center customers.

Goeckeler said the company's capex investment factored in recoveries by the PC and smartphone markets. If these do not play out as expected and headwinds continue for two to three quarters, the executive said the company may have to adjust production.

Amid Thursday's stock drop, Wells Fargo analysts said Western Digital’s execution toward its flash spin-off in early 2025 remains the key focus of investors, TheFly reported.  Goeckeler's comments at the conference that the company has made continued progress with the businesses operating separately is a positive for the stock, the analysts said. 

WDC sentiment and message volume December 13, 2024, as of 2:25 am ET | Source: Stocktwits

Sentiment toward Western Digital shares remained ‘neutral’ (52/100) on Stocktwits, but retail chatter grew to ‘extremely high’ levels amid Thursday’s stock decline. 

Western Digital shares fell 5.59% to $65.99 on Thursday but climbed 1.02% in the after-hours session

The stock has gained 26% this year.

The average analysts’ price target for Western Digital stock is $91.40, according to TipRanks, which presents scope for nearly 40% upside potential.

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