SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY : Western Digital Gets Good News: Analyst Recommends Shares

Western Digital Corp. got some encouraging news last week after a stock analyst issued a favorable report on the ailing computer disk drive industry.

The Irvine computer products manufacturer generates two-thirds of its sales from disk drives, which store and retrieve data in a personal computer. Western Digital and other disk drive makers posted heavy losses last year because of industry price wars.

But Charles Wolf, an analyst at First Boston Corp. in New York, recently recommended purchase of the stock of two Western Digital competitors, Conner Peripherals Inc. in San Jose and Quantum Corp. in Milpitas. He cited a rebound in disk drive sales and an easing of the price competition that saw prices drop more than 40% in 1991.

Robert Blair, a spokesman for Western Digital, said most industry stocks benefited from the recommendation. Western Digital, which lost $192 million over the past six quarters, hopes to return to profitability in the fourth quarter ending June 30, Blair said.

Western Digital closed at $4.50 a share, up 12.5 cents on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.