Western Digital (Nasdaq: WDC) reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenue of $4.381 billion, up 55% year over year, according to its Q1 FY2027 earnings release.Non-GAAP EPS of $4.64 rose 161% and came Western Digital (Nasdaq: WDC) reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenue of $4.381 billion, up 55% year over year, according to its Q1 FY2027 earnings release.Non-GAAP EPS of $4.64 rose 161% and came
Western Digital (WDC) Q1 FY2027 Earnings: Revenue Up 55%, What's Next?
Western Digital (Nasdaq: WDC) reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenue of $4.381 billion, up 55% year over year, according to its Q1 FY2027 earnings release.
Non-GAAP EPS of $4.64 rose 161% and came in well above the roughly $4.11 analysts had expected, while non-GAAP gross margin reached 58.1%.
The company also guided December-quarter revenue to $5.1 billion, about 69% higher than a year earlier.
Even so, shares fell about 6% in after-hours trading on October 22, on a day when chip and storage stocks sold off across the Nasdaq.
Key Takeaways
- Revenue: $4.381 billion, up 55% year over year and 17% quarter over quarter, ahead of expectations of about $4.14 billion.
- Profitability: Non-GAAP gross margin of 58.1%, non-GAAP operating margin of 49.1% and non-GAAP EPS of $4.64.
- Cloud demand: Cloud revenue of $3.9 billion made up 88% of sales and grew 54%; exabytes shipped rose 22% to 248.
- Guidance: December-quarter revenue of $5.1 billion ± $100 million, gross margin of 60–61% and non-GAAP EPS of $5.80 ± $0.20.
- Capital return: $1.0 billion of buybacks in the quarter and a 17% dividend increase to $0.175 per share.
- MEXC reaction: WDCUSDT fell about 6.7% in the first hour after the release and was down about 4.5% after five hours, with first-hour turnover about 43 times the same hour a day earlier.
A Record-Setting Quarter
GAAP gross margin was 57.8% and GAAP operating margin was 46.7%, with GAAP diluted EPS of $4.63, up 51% year over year.
CFO Kris Sennesael attributed the results to "robust exabyte growth and improved pricing."
Operating cash flow was $1.604 billion and free cash flow was $1.377 billion.
Western Digital repurchased $1.001 billion of stock and raised its quarterly dividend by 17% to $0.175 per share, payable on December 17, 2026.
Cloud Storage Demand Is Driving the Business
On the earnings call, Sennesael said cloud revenue was $3.9 billion, or 88% of total revenue, up 54% year over year.
The company shipped 248 exabytes of storage, up 22% from a year earlier and 8% from the prior quarter.
CEO Irving Tan described the current quarter as "sort of the floor" for exabyte growth, and said demand is broadening from hyperscalers to enterprises, newer cloud providers and AI labs.
Tan said Western Digital has visibility "up to 2030, 2031" across its top seven customers, though Sennesael noted that the further out the timeline, the less of it is covered by long-term agreements.
Pricing Is Doing the Heavy Lifting
Average price per terabyte rose 28% year over year, up from high-teens growth in the prior quarter.
Sennesael said there is "definitely further room" for price-per-terabyte increases over the next three to four quarters.
Non-GAAP gross margin expanded more than 14 percentage points year over year, helped by pricing and a shift toward higher-capacity drives.
The main cost headwind is the rising price of DRAM and NAND components used in drives.
How Western Digital Is Answering the Capacity Question
Storage stocks came under pressure in October after reports that Toshiba plans to double its hard drive capacity for AI data centers, raising concern about future pricing.
Tan said Western Digital remains "committed to not investing in any incremental unit capacity," and will instead grow storage output by packing more data onto each drive.
Its ePMR drives of up to 40TB are in volume production and are expected to make up nearly 30% of nearline shipments in the December quarter.
First-generation HAMR drives are on schedule to finish qualification with two customers and begin volume shipments in the first half of 2027.
What's Next for WDC
The December-quarter guidance calls for revenue of $5.1 billion ± $100 million, well above analyst expectations of about $4.57 billion.
Guidance also includes non-GAAP gross margin of 60–61%, operating expenses of $400–410 million and EPS of $5.80 ± $0.20, compared with expectations of about $4.84.
The key items to watch are whether price-per-terabyte gains continue, how quickly HAMR ramps and whether competitors' capacity additions affect pricing.
The after-hours drop suggests the market is weighing these strong numbers against wider concerns about AI infrastructure spending, which pulled down chip and storage stocks across the Nasdaq on October 22.
How WDC Futures Reacted on MEXC
Data snapshot: MEXC, WDCSTOCK_USDT hourly bars, index-price bars and funding history, retrieved 01:40 UTC on October 23, 2026. Figures will differ at later times.
Chart: WDCUSDT hourly closing price (top) and hourly turnover (bottom) on MEXC, October 22, 2026, 4:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. ET. The dashed line marks the 4:00 p.m. ET close; the five-hour analysis below covers 4:00–9:00 p.m. ET.
The window starts with the hourly bar that opened at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on October 22 (20:00 UTC), the window in which the results were published.
Before the release: WDCUSDT had already fallen about 6.4% from the October 21 close to the October 22 close, as storage and chip contracts declined with the broader Nasdaq.
Price: after the release, WDCUSDT fell from 354.56 USDT to 330.67 USDT in the first hour, down about 6.7%, then recovered part of the move to 338.67 USDT by 9:00 p.m. ET, down about 4.5%.
The contract's index price fell about 4.6% over the same five hours, so the contract tracked its reference price.
Trading activity: turnover in the first hour after the close was about 819,000 USDT, compared with about 19,000 USDT in the same hour a day earlier and an average of about 38,000 USDT per hour over the preceding 24 hours.
Across the five post-earnings hours, turnover totalled about 869,000 USDT, more than the roughly 693,000 USDT traded from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET that day.
Premium to index: after the release, the gap between the contract and its index widened, ranging from about −9 to +20 basis points, compared with 0–9 basis points during the regular session.
Funding: WDCUSDT settles funding every eight hours; the last settlement before the release (16:00 UTC) was 0%, and the first one after it (00:00 UTC on October 23) was 0.0014%.
The cost of holding a long position stayed close to zero despite the sharp move.
Following WDC Through MEXC
The WDCUSDT perpetual contract on MEXC provides a derivatives market to follow Western Digital around earnings and outside Nasdaq hours.
A useful assessment pairs price changes with funding, trading activity and the premium to index, rather than reading a contract move as the stock's performance.
For eligible users considering share ownership, MEXC Real Stocks is a separate product route; availability and supported securities should be checked directly.
WDCUSDT perpetual contracts do not confer shareholder rights and carry funding, leverage and liquidation risks.
FAQ
How much did Western Digital earn in Q1 FY2027?
Revenue was $4.381 billion, up 55% year over year, and non-GAAP EPS was $4.64, up 161%.
What is Western Digital's Q2 FY2027 guidance?
Western Digital guided revenue of $5.1 billion ± $100 million, non-GAAP gross margin of 60–61% and non-GAAP EPS of $5.80 ± $0.20.
Why did WDC stock fall after beating earnings?
Shares fell after hours on a day when chip and storage stocks sold off on AI spending concerns, even though results and guidance topped expectations.
Is Western Digital adding hard drive capacity?
No. CEO Irving Tan said the company is committed to not adding unit capacity and will grow output through higher-capacity ePMR and HAMR drives.
How did WDC futures react on MEXC?
WDCUSDT fell about 6.7% in the first hour after the October 22 close and was down about 4.5% after five hours, in line with its index price, while funding stayed near 0%.
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