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For the first quarter, gross margin was 17.7 percent. These results represent strong year-over-year performance, including 20 per cent unit growth, 23 per cent growth in revenue and 126 per cent growth in net income. During the same period last year, the company reported earnings of US$ .14 per share in the fiscal first quarter, shipped 14.2 million units, and posted gross margin of 13.7 percent.
In the first fiscal quarter, the company shipped more than one million of its WD ScorpioÔ 2.5-inch mobile hard drives to the industry's fastest-growing high-volume market - notebook PCs. WD also shipped approximately 1.3 million 3.5-inch hard drives for utilization in personal and digital video recorders (PVR/DVR).
"Western Digital's Q1 performance continues to demonstrate the sustainability of the company's business model," Hafeez Khawaja, WD's Senior Regional Director, Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
"WD has shown the industry's most consistent financial performance over the last two years, while expanding its vertical integration and making major investments in new technologies and new products."
WD said that 25 per cent of its Q1 revenue was derived from non-desktop PC sources including notebook PCs, consumer electronics, enterprise applications, and retail sales, as against 20 per cent last year, while 75 per cent of the company's first quarter revenue came from hard drives configured into desktop PCs, a market that remains strong.
From a balance sheet perspective, Western Digital generated US$ 40 million in cash from operations during the quarter, ending with total cash and short-term investments of US$ 581 million. During the quarter, the company repurchased 1.1 million shares for approximately US$ 14 million. Since the inception of the share repurchase program in May 2004, WD has repurchased 7.8 million shares for approximately US$ 75 million.
Posted by Anne-Birte Stensgaard, Senior News Editor
