Irvine-based storage products maker Western Digital Corp. after the close of trading Tuesday reported revenue and adjusted profits for the December quarter that beat Wall Street expectations.
The world’s largest disk drive maker posted sales of nearly $3.9 billion in the recently ended quarter, down 2.1% from a year earlier and above analyst estimates of $3.84 billion.
Net income hit $539 million, up 1.3% from a year ago and above Wall Street’s $487 million target.
The company said it sold 61 million hard-drive units, compared to 64.7 million units shipped in the September quarter.
Hard drives use spinning disks to store data, unlike the company’s growing line of solid-state drives, which use chips.
Western Digital’s disk drives go into computers, external storage devices, corporate networks and consumer electronics, such as laptops.
Cupertino rival Seagate Technology Inc. reported yesterday that it sold 56.9 million hard drives in the December quarter, down from 59.5 million units in the September quarter.
Western Digital’s solid quarterly performance comes a day after the company announced its venture capital arm co-led a $29 million funding round for memory products maker Everspin Technologies Inc.
Santa Clara-based GlobalFoundries was the other lead investor in the Series B round.
Western Digital’s share wasn’t disclosed.
The company’s shares rose to a market value of about $23.4 billion in midday trading Wednesday.
