Western Digital Q2 misses estimates
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Western Digital missed market estimates for its fiscal second quarter amid price uncertainty in the NAND flash market. The company on Thursday reported a net loss of $487 million, or $1.68 a share. Non-GAAP earnings were $1.45 per share on revenue of $4.2 billion, down from $5.3 billion from a year ago.
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Wall Street was looking for earnings of $1.49 a share on revenue of $4.25 billion. Shares of Western Digital fell nearly five percent in late trading.
Western Digital chief executive Steve Milligan pointed to "a softening business environment" that led to lower sales during the quarter.
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"We are taking actions to better align our cost and expense structure to near-term business conditions while continuing to deliver innovative solutions to drive our future success," Milligan said. "We enter calendar 2019 with the strongest product portfolio in our history and confidence in our ability to capitalize on the long-term opportunities associated with data growth."
Elsewhere on the balance sheet, Western Digital said it generated approximately $469 million in cash from operations during the second quarter, down from $1.2 billion a year ago. It ended the quarter with $4.1 billion total cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities.
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For Q3, Wall Street expects Western Digital to report revenue of $3.9 billion and Non-GAAP earnings of 98 cents per share.