CNBC reported that Western Digital rose 8% in Tuesday trading, Oct. 27, along with other AI infrastructure companies. The rally followed Anthropic's preliminary IPO filing Monday and a separate $63 billion lender agreement to finance Anthropic's purchase of Broadcom technology.

What WD reported last week

On Oct. 22, the San Jose company, which now brands itself WD, reported results for its fiscal first quarter, which ended Oct. 2:

  • Revenue: $4.38 billion, up 55% from $2.82 billion a year earlier
  • Non-GAAP gross margin: 58.1%, up from 43.9%
  • Diluted EPS: $4.63 GAAP and $4.64 non-GAAP, with non-GAAP EPS up 161%
  • Free cash flow: $1.38 billion
  • Buybacks: about $1.0 billion

Outlook and dividend

For the fiscal second quarter, WD expects revenue of about $5.1 billion, plus or minus $100 million, which would be up 66% to 72% from a year earlier. It expects non-GAAP EPS of about $5.80. The board raised the quarterly dividend 17% to 17.5 cents a share, payable Dec. 17 to holders of record Dec. 4.

"We are executing well through our technology transitions to meet the growing demand for storage," CEO Irving Tan said. CFO Kris Sennesael credited "robust exabyte growth and improved pricing."