Western Digital (WDC) vs. Its Competitors Critical Comparison

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) is one of 83 publicly-traded companies in the “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Western Digital to related companies based on the strength of its institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk and profitability.

Dividends

Western Digital pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Western Digital pays out 2.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.9% and pay out 27.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Western Digital and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Western Digital	0	5	21	2	2.89
Western Digital Competitors	1121	4404	7821	381	2.54

Western Digital presently has a consensus price target of $591.04, suggesting a potential upside of 88.64%. As a group, “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies have a potential upside of 58.81%. Given Western Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Western Digital is more favorable than its peers.

Volatility & Risk

Western Digital has a beta of 2.27, indicating that its stock price is 127% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Western Digital’s peers have a beta of 1.74, indicating that their average stock price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.5% of Western Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.6% of shares of all “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Western Digital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.0% of shares of all “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Western Digital and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Western Digital	69.20%	55.62%	33.13%
Western Digital Competitors	-92.27%	-29.83%	7.83%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Western Digital and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Western Digital	$14.48 billion	$9.42 billion	12.16
Western Digital Competitors	$26.02 billion	$4.07 billion	4.81

Western Digital’s peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Western Digital. Western Digital is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Western Digital beats its peers on 12 of the 15 factors compared.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) develops and supplies hard disk drives (HDDs) and related data-storage products. Its drives serve data centers and cloud providers, as well as businesses and consumers who need storage for computers, network-attached storage systems, surveillance and other applications. Its product brands include WD and Ultrastar. Founded in 1970, the company began as an electronics and semiconductor business before expanding into data storage. In February 2025, Western Digital completed the separation of its flash-memory business into the independently traded SanDisk Corporation, leaving Western Digital focused on HDDs.