SALON

Wednesday, Jul 25, 2012 11:15 PM UTC

Western Digital 4Q blows past Street; shares soar

By

Topics: From the Wires,

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) — Hard-drive maker Western Digital Corp. said Wednesday that its net income jumped nearly five-fold in the quarter through June, beating analyst expectations, as it reaped the benefits of its $3.9 billion acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

The results trounced expectations and Western Digital’s shares soared more than 18 percent in after-hours trading.

Net income in the three months to June 29 came to $745 million, or $2.87 per share, compared to $158 million, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier.

Western Digital completed its acquisition of the Hitachi unit in March.

Excluding costs related to restructuring and other items, adjusted earnings came to $3.35 per share, blowing past the $2.47 expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue nearly doubled to $4.75 billion from $2.40 billion. That also beat the $4.25 billion expected by analysts.

CEO John Coyne said fourth-quarter demand was in line with company forecasts, while the company’s WD and HGST subsidiaries performed ahead of plan.

The company bounced back from floods in Thailand that disrupted its operations late last year. For the full fiscal year, net income more than doubled to $1.61 billion, or $6.58 per share, from $726 million, or $3.09 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 31 percent to $12.48 billion.

Western Digital’s shares rose $5.94 to $38.41 in extended trading following the release of the earnings report.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations