Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Aug 11, 2026

Western Digital Corp (WDC)

A forensic read on Western Digital Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

D · Weak — demands caution

Forensic grade

Safe

Financial health

14.1

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

16.5

P / E (ttm)

35.6%

ROE

$152.4B

Market cap

0.12%

Dividend yield

50.7%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Western Digital Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 14.1, placing it in the Safe zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by share-count dilution.

What the filings flag

+4.3%/yr

FY2022–FY2025

Share-count dilution. Diluted share count changed +14% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+4.3%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.3% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2022 has been diluted ~12%.

3% of rev

FY2025

Stock-based comp load. Stock-based compensation ran 3% of revenue and 21% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.74 per diluted share. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count: holders gave up about 4.4% of the company a year, and that rate is not falling. That is the figure to weigh, not the share of free cash flow.

-94%

FY2020→FY2025

Dividend — cut. The payout was CUT ~94% in FY2025 (from FY2020). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$9.52B

Revenue Growth YoY+50.7%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)-20.3%

Net Margin19.8%

Free Cash Flow$1.28B

Return on Equity35.6%

Debt / Equity0.89x

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Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.