Is the business good?
How good a business is WDC?
Western Digital earns 42% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
42%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 33 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 34%
Operating margin · Computer Hardware median 4.9% · 12 months to Q4 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.37×
Cash conversion · 0.68× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- R&D as % of revenue
- 9.0%
R&D as % of revenue
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2021 | 7.2% |
| FY2022 | 13% |
| FY2023 | −8.8% |
| FY2024 | −6.4% |
| FY2025 | 25% |
| FY2026 | 34% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q4 2026
- 49%
- Operating margin12 months to Q4 2026
- 34%
- Net margin12 months to Q4 2026
- 73%
- Free cash flow margin
- 27%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 9.0%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $12.9B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $3.51B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $9.42B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 42%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Computer Hardware
Ranks #1 of 11 by Smart Score