Western Digital Shares Fall on Earnings News

Western Digital Corp.’s stock price continued to slump a day after the company announced that its earnings for the fiscal first quarter will fall short of analysts’ expectations. The stock fell $1 a share to close at $40 on the New York Stock Exchange. The Irvine-based manufacturer of computer disk drives announced the earnings projections after the market closed Monday, triggering a drop of $7.50 a share in after-hours trading on other exchanges. Company executives said lower prices cut into Western Digital’s margin. Analysts had put Western Digital earnings for the quarter at 77 cents to 87 cents a share. The firm expects earnings to hit 63 cents to 66 cents a share for the quarter that ended Saturday, said company spokesman Robert Blair. In the year-earlier quarter, Western Digital earned $32.9 million, or 35 cents a share, on sales of $883.1 million. These numbers reflect the company’s 2-for-1 stock split that was completed last spring.