Western Digital Tops Estimates

Updated from 5:08 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hard-disk drive maker Western Digital (WDC) posted lower first-quarter net income because of charges related to its acquisition of a component maker and non-recurring tax charges.

After the market's closed, the company said net income fell to $69 million, or 31 cents a share, from $103 million, or 46 cents a share.

Excluding the Komag acquisition and tax charges, the company earned 81 cents a share, handily beating analysts' consensus estimate of 57 cents, according to Thompson Financial.

Revenue surged nearly 40% to $1.77 billion, also topping analysts' average estimate. Growth in sales outpaced a 29% increase in hard drive shipments to 29.4 million units, underscoring the company's earlier statement that it sees a greater proportion of sales coming from higher-priced models.

The company also said that this is the first quarter in which sales of non-desktop drives accounted for more than half of its total hard drive revenue. This largely reflects strong demand for drives used in notebook personal computers, mobile devices and enterprise storage appliances.

"We continue to reap the benefits of our investments and deployment of leading technologies over the last several years, enabling us to address customer demand for mainstream and higher capacity hard drives in consumer and commercial applications," said Chief Executive John Coyne in a statement.

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