Stock analysis/share presentation ⬇️
Today we are talking about the company Western Digital: $WDC (+0.24%)
What is Western Digital anyway 🧐
Western Digital Corporation specializes in the design, manufacture and marketing of hard disk drives. Under the names Western Digital and WD, the corporation offers internal and external hard drives for PCs, laptops, servers, workstations, storage networks and consumer electronics.
The products are mainly sold through system manufacturers, resellers and retailers.
How net sales are distributed: ⬇️
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: United States (28%), Americas (4.5%), China (24.3%), Asia (25.7%), Europe/Middle East/Africa (17.5%).
Market capitalization: 🏦
The company has a current market capitalization of around 10.9 billion euros.
How many employees does the company have: 🙋🏽♂️🙋🏻♀️
The Western Digital company currently has around 65,000 employees. That is definitely a very strong employee count.
Dividend yield:
The company has not paid its shareholders a dividend since Corona (April 2020). Prior to that, the company had paid dividends to its shareholders on a quarterly basis.
When was the company founded:
On April 23, 1970, the company was founded by Alvin B. Phillips as General Digital and was initially a manufacturer of test equipment for certain semiconductors. General Digital quickly evolved into a specialized semiconductor manufacturer and changed its name to Western Digital in 1971.
In the early years, revenue was generated primarily from the sale of chips for calculators.
Stock Weaknesses:
Estimates of analysts following the company drift widely. The difference between estimates suggests either a difficulty in predicting results or a fundamental difference in interpretation on the part of analysts.
The company's earnings growth prospects are not very dynamic and represent a weakness.
Weaknesses of the share: 📉
- The profitability of the business activity is a major weakness of the company.
- The company has not paid its shareholders a dividend since 2020.
- When viewed through various fundamental criteria and a short to medium-term observation period, the company is rated very poorly.
Strengths of the share: 📈
- The company has a strong employee base.
- The average price target of analysts following the stock has been revised upward significantly in the last four months.
Western Digital Management:
David Goeckeler has been Western Digital's chief executive officer since March 2020 (since Corona). Goeckeler earned his bachelor's degree in computer science and mathematics from the University of Missouri at Columbia. In addition, David Goeckeler holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois. He also holds master's degrees in business administration from both Columbia University and the University of California at Berkeley.
More about the business model: ⬇️🐵
Western Digital engages in the design, manufacture, marketing and distribution of data storage devices and solutions. The company divides its sales into the following two areas.
Flash-based products:
In this segment, the company offers various flash-based storage products. Flash storage is a technology based on high-speed electrically programmable memory. Flash storage uses a type of non-volatile memory also known as flash memory.
One advantage of this technology is that non-volatile memory does not require power to maintain the integrity of stored data. This means even in the event of a power failure, data is not lost. Flash storage is based on solid-state technology. Compared to hard disk drives (HDD), solid-state drives (SSDs) allow faster loading with fewer delays, higher efficiency, and they are cooler and quieter in operation.
Hard Disk Drives:
In this segment, the company focuses on the production and sale of hard disk drives (HDD= Hard Disk Drives). In this regard, the Western Digital offers both internal and external hard drives.
Internal hard drives offer a low cost per GB or TB of storage space and are based on magnetic disks to store and protect your data. They are one of the most common, reliable ways to store critical applications and content. Internal hard drives are built into the computer.
This is where the advantage of external hard drives comes into play. External HDDs offer similar technology, but are portable devices that can be connected to the computer via USB, for example. They can store large amounts of data, but they can also be slower and less robust than internal HDDs.
Since data storage is relevant in all sectors, Western Digital's products are also used in many industries. For example, numerous companies in the medical technology, telecommunications, aerospace and military sectors work with Western Digital's products and solutions. But technology and cloud companies are also among its customers.
Both segments generate roughly the same amount of revenue. So Western Digital is not dependent on just one segment. Regionally, the most revenue is generated in the Asian region. This is followed at a greater distance by the home market in North America and the Europe, Middle East and Africa block.
Western Digital has thus developed into an industry leader over the past 50 years. With its storage media, the company plays a role in many future trends. With its broad product range, management believes it is ideally positioned to take advantage of the growth opportunities arising from the changes in the storage industry.
Western Digital's goal: 🏁
Western Digital's mission is to unleash the potential of data by pushing the boundaries of what is possible through technical innovation. The company ensures that data is securely and reliably accessible and usable at all times.
Today, the amount of data is enormous. This massive amount of data makes it difficult to efficiently retrieve and process the collected and often very diverse data in order to derive actionable insights from it. This is where Western Digital wants to help its customers with innovative solutions.
How does the stock look from a chart perspective? (US dollars converted into euros) 📈📉
Let's take a look at the most important zones at the moment. The share price is currently at €34.85. We are right at resistance here, but it has not yet been broken through sustainably. Below us is the first support zone at €31.70. After this support zone, there would still be a lot of room down. Here, the next support would be at 27.80€. However, if we now take out the resistance sustainably where we are right now, the next resistance would be at 36.70€. After that, the next zone would be at 38.70€. If this is also actually taken out, it will be exciting whether the high at 41.50€ is approached.
Your opinion: 🧐🤔
Now I'd love to hear your thoughts on this stock in the comments.
What do you think about Western Digital and did you already know this company?
Do you guys have this stock in your portfolio?
Feel free to let me know in the comments.
Of course, this is not an investment advice but just my own opinion that I would like to share with you.