WDC vs. NTAP, SYNA, IMMR, IVAC, STX, PSTG, QMCO, SNPS, SNOW, and MSI
Should you be buying Western Digital stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Western Digital include NetApp (NTAP), Synaptics (SYNA), Immersion (IMMR), Intevac (IVAC), Seagate Technology (STX), Pure Storage (PSTG), Quantum (QMCO), Synopsys (SNPS), Snowflake (SNOW), and Motorola Solutions (MSI). These companies are all part of the "computer and technology" sector.
Western Digital vs.
NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) and Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, community ranking and media sentiment.
92.2% of NetApp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.5% of Western Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of NetApp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Western Digital shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
NetApp has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Western Digital. Western Digital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NetApp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
NetApp has a net margin of 17.78% compared to Western Digital's net margin of 9.95%. NetApp's return on equity of 123.63% beat Western Digital's return on equity.
NetApp has a beta of 1.42, indicating that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Western Digital has a beta of 1.49, indicating that its stock price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500.
NetApp pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Western Digital pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. NetApp pays out 36.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Western Digital pays out 7.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. NetApp has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. NetApp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Western Digital received 940 more outperform votes than NetApp when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.95% of users gave Western Digital an outperform vote while only 53.32% of users gave NetApp an outperform vote.
In the previous week, NetApp had 6 more articles in the media than Western Digital. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for NetApp and 23 mentions for Western Digital. NetApp's average media sentiment score of 1.08 beat Western Digital's score of 0.71 indicating that NetApp is being referred to more favorably in the media.
NetApp currently has a consensus price target of $117.79, indicating a potential upside of 14.90%. Western Digital has a consensus price target of $63.37, indicating a potential upside of 13.26%. Given NetApp's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe NetApp is more favorable than Western Digital.
Summary
NetApp beats Western Digital on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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This page (NASDAQ:WDC) was last updated on 6/10/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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