Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) versus Eastman Kodak (OTCMKTS:EKDKQ) Critical Review

Eastman Kodak (OTCMKTS:EKDKQ) and Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Eastman Kodak and Western Digital, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eastman Kodak	0	0	0	0	0.00
Western Digital	0	5	18	2	2.88

Western Digital has a consensus target price of $534.56, suggesting a potential upside of 14.77%. Given Western Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Western Digital is more favorable than Eastman Kodak.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.5% of Western Digital shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of Western Digital shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Eastman Kodak and Western Digital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eastman Kodak	N/A	N/A	N/A
Western Digital	72.95%	48.15%	25.79%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Eastman Kodak and Western Digital”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eastman Kodak	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Western Digital	$12.92 billion	12.43	$9.42 billion	$24.21	19.24

Western Digital has higher revenue and earnings than Eastman Kodak.

Summary

Western Digital beats Eastman Kodak on 10 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak) is a technology company focused on imaging for business. Kodak provides disruptive technologies and solutions, quality enhancements and professional services. It offers disruptive technologies and solutions in product goods packaging, functional and digital printing markets. It offers quality enhancements for customers of its businesses in graphics and entertainment. Professional services help businesses redefine information flow and security.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation develops, manufactures, and sells data storage devices and solutions in the United States, China, Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, rest of Asia, and internationally. It offers client devices, including hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs) for desktop and notebook personal computers (PCs), gaming consoles, and set top boxes; and flash-based embedded storage products for mobile phones, tablets, notebook PCs, and other portable and wearable devices, as well as automotive, Internet of Things, industrial, and connected home applications. The company also provides enterprise HDDs; enterprise SSDs consisting of flash-based SSDs and software solutions for use in enterprise servers, online transactions, data analysis, and other enterprise applications; and data storage platforms. In addition, it offers external HDD storage products in mobile and desktop form; client portable SSDs; removable cards that are used in consumer devices comprising mobile phones, tablets, imaging systems, and cameras and smart video systems; universal serial bus flash drives for use in the computing and consumer markets; and wireless drive products used in-field backup of created content, as well as wireless streaming of high-definition movies, photos, music, and documents to tablets, smartphones, and PCs. The company sells its products under the Western Digital, SanDisk, and WD brands to original equipment manufacturers, distributors, dealers, resellers, and retailers. Western Digital Corporation was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.