Western Digital (NYSE:WDC). It's a company I hadn't thought of for years, even though I briefly owned it (I think), a decade or so ago. I wouldn't even have remembered what business it was in -- until last week. That was when my Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) computer died and the company sent me a new (well, refurbished) hard drive, which happened to be made by Western Digital. I'm typing this article on my resuscitated computer now, happy with Western Digital's efforts on my behalf.
But not everyone is happy with Western Digital. Investors and pundits, for example, are divided. In the Orange County Business Journal, Brian Womack recently noted that "Prudential Equity Group LLC analyst Jesse Tortora started coverage on Lake Forest disk drive maker Western Digital with a stock rating of 'underweight,' the equivalent of 'sell.'"
He also explained that "shares of Western Digital already were down earlier in the week after Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ:MRVL), a maker of chips used in communications and storage devices, warned that customers, including drive makers, weren't buying as quickly."
This made me wonder what our Fool community of investors thinks about Western Digital. I clicked over to our brand new stock-picking service, Motley Fool CAPS, to see what the buzz was. It turns out that although the stock isn't among those most favored to outperform, the majority of CAPS participants are bullish on it. The last time I checked, 54 CAPS participants had rated the stock, and there were 46 "outperforms" vs. 8 "underperforms." Even more surprising, perhaps, is that among our "All-Star" participants, those with the highest accuracy and scores, the outperform-underperform ratio was 11 to 1.
What do the bulls see in this firm? Here's a sampling of comments:
malcolmcochran: "Good fundamentals. But could Flash memory erode its longterm future?"
ColtHz: "Takeover candidate."
sandyroy25: "P/E 10 on 2007 earnings. Revenue growth 13%-plus, with broadening product line. Excellent growth history."
neoma1: "Revenues growing, profits up, share price is next."
dm982: "One of the best hard drive makers out there... great balance sheet and brand name."
Finally, note that one of many nifty features in the CAPS system is that you can see what other stocks are favored by those who favor a given stock. Players bullish on Western Digital, for example, are also bullish on Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Yahoo!, and Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM), while players bearish on it are also bearish on Dell, American Eagle Outfitters (NASDAQ:AEOS), and Honeywell (NYSE:HON).
To get in the game and rate any of these stocks, click here.
Dell is an Inside Value and Stock Advisor pick. Netflix, American Eagle, and Yahoo! are Stock Advisor recommendations. Akamai is a Rule Breakers pick. Check out our entire suite of newsletters by clicking here.
Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian does not own shares of any companies mentioned in this article. The Fool's disclosure policy never needs refurbishing.
