WD does the business in Q3

Executes crisps

Western Digital will beat its own Q3 forecasts on revenue, profits and shipments.

The hard disk drive (HDD) maker reports that "solid demand" from its PC sales channel continued in March, matching its experience in January and February.

And it boasts of "crisp execution" - in other words it is managing its manufacturing and inventory better than it used to.

WD now expects sales for the quarter ending March 29, to come in at $590m on unit shipments of 8m. The company expects to declare earnings per share (EPS) of $0.08 from underlying trading. This includes an operating profit "exceeding $20m" from WD's hard drive business. Add in non-recurring items and EPS rises to $O.10.

Previously, WD said it expected to slightly worse this Q than in Q2 when it produced sales of of $575m
on unit shipments of 7.7m and EPS of $.05, excluding non-recurring items. ®