Western Digital Corp. put in a strong shift at the end of its fiscal 2021 year, with growth across all of its businesses driving fourth quarter results that beat expectations.

The company reported earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of $2.16 per share on revenue of $4.9 billion, up 15% from the same period one year ago.

Wall Street had expected the company to report earnings of just $1.49 per share on revenue of $4.53 billion, so it was a strong beat.

Western Digital, which makes hard drives and data storage products used in personal computers and servers, also reported full year earnings of $4.55 per share on total revenue of $16.9 billion, a 1% gain from the year ago period.

Chief Executive Officer David Goeckeler (pictured) told analysts he was “extremely proud” of the company’s execution during the quarter.

“Throughout this fiscal year, we successfully delivered both flash and hard drive innovations that are essential building blocks in the acceleration of the data economy,” he said. “This innovation, combined with our broad channels to market, diverse end market exposure and improved operational efficiency, enabled us to successfully navigate through the pandemic and capitalize on strategic growth opportunities.”

All three of Western Digital’s businesses saw revenue grow during the period. The largest business, Client Devices, saw sales rise 13% from a year ago to $2.17 billion. The company said that segment saw broad-based strength across almost every product category on a sequential basis. For instance, it saw better than expected demand for desktop an notebook HDDs and flash-based drives. It also saw strong demand in gaming, automotive, industrial solutions and smart video, it said.

Data Center Devices and Solutions saw revenue of $1.78 billion, up 6% from a year ago. Western Digital said it shipped more than 104 exabytes of capacity in enterprise hard drives, a company record. Its new 18-terabyte energy-assisted hard drive comprised almost half of all that capacity.

The Client Solutions unit did even better, with revenue rising 42% to $977 million thanks to better than expected seasonal demand.

The company added that it was able to drive growth in both revenue and gross margin due to the breadth of its portfolio and many routes to market.

Holger Mueller, an analyst with Constellation Research Inc., told SiliconANGLE that Western Digital is growing nice and steady, though he said the strong fourth quarter performance was key to pulling it over the line for the full year. “Western Digital needs to find a way to partake more in enterprise cloud growth, that’s the key for a stable future,” he said.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2022 the company is looking at earnings of between $2.25 and $2.55 per share on revenue of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion. That was better than expected too, with Wall Street earlier forecasting earnings of just $2.05 per share on revenue of $4.89 billion.

Photo: Western Digital