S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Western Digital Corp. (NYSE:WDC) will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, January 23, 2012. Western Digital designs, develops, manufactures, and sells hard drives.

Western Digital Corp. Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet.

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for net income of 71 cents per share, a decline of 26% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $1.05. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has risen from 56 cents during the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting profit of $4.19 per share, a rise of 33.9% from last year.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company topped estimates by 0 cents, coming in at net income of $1.10 per share against a mean estimate of profit of 95 cents. The company fell in line with estimates in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.

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Wall St. Revenue Expectations: On average, analysts predict $1.84 billion in revenue this quarter, a decline of 25.8% from the year ago quarter. Analysts are forecasting total revenue of $9.27 billion for the year, a decline of 2.7% from last year’s revenue of $9.53 billion.

Analyst Ratings: 10 out of 18 analysts surveyed (55.6%) have a buy rating on Western Digital.. This is below the mean analyst rating of 10 competitors, which average 72% buy ratings.

A Look Back: In the first quarter, profit rose 21.3% to $239 million ($1.01 a share) from $197 million (84 cents a share) the year earlier, exceeding analyst expectations. Revenue rose 12.4% to $2.69 billion from $2.4 billion.

Key Stats:

The increase in profit in the first quarter broke a streak of three consecutive quarters of year-over-year profit decreases. Net income dropped 40.2% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, 63.5% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year and 47.6% in the second quarter of the last fiscal year.

The company’s revenue has risen for two straight quarters. In the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, the figure rose 0.9%.

Competitors to Watch: Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX), EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), STEC, Inc. (NASDAQ:STEC), SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), Dot Hill Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:HILL), Overland Storage, Inc. (NASDAQ:OVRL), Hutchinson Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:HTCH), Quantum Corporation (NYSE:QTM), ADPT Corporation (ADPT), and OCZ Technology Group Inc. (NASDAQ:OCZ).

Stock Price Performance: During October 19, 2011 to January 17, 2012, the stock price had risen $8.65 (35.4%) from $24.44 to $33.09. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between June 27, 2011 and July 8, 2011 when shares rose for nine-straight days, rising 10.4% (+$3.62) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between May 31, 2011 and June 9, 2011 when shares fell for eight-straight days, falling 8.1% (-$2.96) over that span.

(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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