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Western Digital (WDC) Announces 22TB & 26TB UltraSMR HDDs

Zacks Equity Research
·4-min read

Western Digital WDC announced that it was “sampling” its latest 22 terabyte (TB) and 26TB UltraSMR hard-disk drives or HDDs for select hyperscale cloud customers. The company is expected to increase its leadership in area density and generate client value by lowering total cost of ownership (TCO).

The chosen few hyperscale customers are now receiving samples of the 22TB Ultrastar DC HC570 HDD and the new 26TB Ultrastar DC HC670 UltraSMR HDD. The DC HC570 HDD will begin selling in volume, while the sale of UltraSMR HDD will begin in the summer of 2022.

The Ultrastar Data60 and Data102 JBODs will be equipped with the new 22TB CMR Ultrastar HDDs. The company is extending OptiNAND innovations to its overall HDD portfolio.

Western Digital Corporation Price and Consensus

Western Digital Corporation Price and Consensus
Western Digital Corporation Price and Consensus

Western Digital Corporation price-consensus-chart | Western Digital Corporation Quote

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The company added that is on track to deliver 30+ TB with energy assisted PMR (ePMR), using its cutting-edge OptiNAND technology, ePMR, triple stage actuator, HelioSeal and UltraSMR technologies.

HDDs Designed to Lower TCO

The 22TB CMR HDD includes OptiNAND to deliver unparalleled areal density on a 2.2TB-per-platter HelioSeal 10-disk platform. The new ePMR drives use the OptiNAND technology to provide unmatched capacity, performance and data protection, per Western Digital.

Western Digital's new UltraSMR technology integrates OptiNAND with proprietary firmware, which takes advantage of HDD system-level hardware developments to enable huge block encoding and an enhanced error correction algorithm that boosts tracks-per-inch.

Western Digital's new 26TB Ultrastar DC HC670 UltraSMR HDD offers 2.6TB per platter and 18% more capacity for cloud clients optimizing their stacks to take advantage of SMR's benefits, per the company’s estimates.

The HDDs are also equipped with the ArmorCache write cache data safety feature. The feature can combine the performance of write cache enable with the data protection of write cache disable (WCD) for an enhanced layer of protection in case of an emergency power outage. In the WCD mode, OptiNAND provides the drives a significant speed boost, which is most noticeable in random writes with bigger block transfers, added the company.

Per Western Digital, IOPS and throughput will improve more than 40% when comparing non-OptiNAND common HDD that facilitate application transfer lengths of 256 KB or more, with a peak improvement of more than 80% at 1 MB transfer length. It provides customers with performance and data protection, regardless of the selected mode.

The pandemic-triggered woes and industry-wide supply-chain disruptions are concerning for WDC, which carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present. Shares of the company have lost 17.6% against the industry’s growth of 16.1%.

Key Picks

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader technology space are InterDigital IDCC, Vishay Intertechnology VSH and Pure Storage PSTG. InterDigital and Vishay Intertechnology currently sports a Zacks Ranks #1 (Strong Buy), whereas Pure Storage carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for InterDigital’s 2022 earnings is pegged at $2,28 per share, decreasing 27% in the past 60 days. The long-term earnings growth rate is anticipated to be 15%.

InterDigital’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all of the last four quarters, the average being 141.13%. Shares of InterDigital have declined 15.3% in the past year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Vishay Intertechnology’s 2022 earnings is pegged at $2.68 per share, rising 10.3% in the past 60 days. The long-term earnings growth rate is anticipated to be 22.7%.

Vishay Intertechnology’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all of the last four quarters, the average being 4.96%. Shares of Vishay Intertechnology have declined 20.3% in the past year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Pure Storage’s fiscal 2023 earnings is pegged at 86 cents per share, unchanged in the past 60 days. The long-term earnings growth rate is anticipated to be 30.9%.

Pure Storage’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all of the last four quarters, the average being 99.2%. Shares of Pure Storage have gained 43.3% in the past year.


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Western Digital Corporation (WDC) : Free Stock Analysis Report

InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (VSH) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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