Western Digital Posts Record ’95 Profit Despite Poor Quarter

Despite a 29% drop in profits for its fourth quarter, Western Digital Corp. on Monday reported record-setting results for its fiscal 1995.

The Irvine computer disk drive maker reported a $123-million profit, equal to $2.56 a share, up 68% from $73 million, or $1.77 a share, in fiscal 1994.

Revenue for the year ended June 30 climbed 40% to $2.1 billion from $1.5 billion. The company said the increased revenue came largely from sales of new products.

For its fourth quarter, Western Digital reported a profit of $26.4 million, or 54 cents per share, down from $37.3 million, or 79 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue for the three months, however, rose 26.6% to $585 million from $462 million.

Chuck Haggerty, Western Digital’s president and chief executive, said materials costs and tougher competition caused the decline in profits for the final quarter.

“Last year was a higher [profit] margin year, but this year component costs aren’t coming down as fast as we’d anticipated,” Haggerty said. He said he expects the introduction later this year of new computer programs like Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system, which require more memory, to help the company sell its new, high-capacity drives.

Western Digital’s stock fell 12.5 cents Monday to close at $18.50 on volume of 1,613,000 shares in New York Stock Exchange trading.