Western Digital Financial Results for Second Fiscal Quarter 2018

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) today reported record revenue of $5.3 billion for its second fiscal quarter ended Dec. 29, 2017. Operating income was $955 million with a net loss of $823 million, or ($2.78) per share. The GAAP net loss for the period includes a provisional net tax charge of $1.6 billion primarily due to the repatriation tax as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Excluding this charge and after other non-GAAP adjustments, the company achieved record non-GAAP operating income of $1.4 billion and non-GAAP net income of $1.2 billion, or $3.95 per share.

In the year-ago quarter, the company reported revenue of $4.9 billion, operating income of $545 million and net income of $235 million, or $0.80 per share. Non-GAAP operating income in the year-ago quarter was $995 million and non-GAAP net income was $675 million, or $2.30 per share.

The company generated approximately $1.2 billion in cash from operations during the second fiscal quarter of 2018, ending with $6.4 billion of total cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities. On Nov. 1, 2017, the company declared a cash dividend of $0.50 per share of its common stock, which was paid to shareholders on Jan. 16, 2018.

"We continued our strong financial performance in the December quarter, with nine percent year-over-year revenue growth, driven by each of our major end-market categories and solid execution by our team," said Steve Milligan, chief executive officer. "We once again generated strong operating cash flow, reflecting continued healthy demand in our end markets, most notably for our capacity enterprise hard drives and flash-based products.

"I am very pleased with our technology and product development execution. The deployment of our 64-layer 3D flash technology continued across our product portfolio and we will be ramping our 96-layer technology later this calendar year. We continue to lead the industry with our high-capacity helium HDD platform in 10, 12 and 14 terabyte capacities and we remain on plan to sample our MAMR-based capacity enterprise drives in the second half of calendar 2018. I am also pleased that we resolved our negotiations with our JV partner Toshiba in December and ensured our long-term access to flash."

The investment community conference call to discuss these results, the company's guidance for the third fiscal quarter 2018 and an accompanying presentation will be webcast live over the Internet today at 2:30 p.m. Pacific/5:30 p.m. Eastern. The live and archived conference call/webcast can be accessed online at investor.wdc.com. Supplemental financial information, including the company's guidance for the third fiscal quarter and the earnings presentation will also be posted on the same website. The telephone replay number in the U.S. is 1(855) 859-2056 or +1(404) 537-3406 for international callers. The required passcode is 9563377.