Western Digital’s Stock Value Erodes After Earnings Revision

A loss of investor confidence in Western Digital Corp. continued Thursday, with the computer hardware manufacturer’s stock dropping another 11% in value in the wake of a report that its earnings will not reach analysts’ expectations.

Over the past two trading days, Western Digital’s shares have lost 27% of their value. The stock closed at $5.875 a share in Thursday’s trading on the New York Stock Exchange, down 75 cents from $6.625 on Wednesday and compared to a close of $8.125 a share on Tuesday. Thursday’s trading volume was 2.7 million shares, more than three times what is typical for the stock.

Western Digital’s shares began sliding Wednesday, when the Irvine company announced that a recent price war in 3.5-inch hard disk drives has cut into its sales. As a result, quarterly earnings could drop from the range of 20 cents to 26 cents a share that Wall Street had expected to a range of 6 cents to 10 cents.