Shares of Western Digital Corp. posted a first-quarter profit of $62.7 million, or 67 cents share, on revenues of $1.09 billion.

The 67-cent-per-share beat most analysts' revised estimates of 65 cents per share.

Last week company officials warned that sluggish sales would result in lower-than-expected sales and earnings for the quarter, sending initial First Call estimates to 65 cents per share from 81 cents per share.

Revenue grew to $1.1 billion, up from $883.1 million in the first quarter of last year.

Chuck Haggerty, chairman, president, and CEO said in a statement, "We are encouraged by the 91 percent profit gain but obviously disappointed in not meeting the earlier Wall Street expectations for the quarter ... We are looking at strong demand for the December quarter from the major PC and server manufacturers."

He added that the company's new storage drives, including the 9.1 gigabyte Enterprise SCSI drive and the new 2.1 gigabyte per platter Caviar platform are going to be ready for customer demand.

Western Digital's stock closed up $2.13 per share to $40.38 before earnings were announced.