Apple Inc. vs WESTERN DIGITAL CORPORATION, two Computer Hardware stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
The margin gap here runs the wrong way for the famous name. Western Digital, riding the storage cycle, currently out-earns Apple on every line: a 36% operating margin to 32%, a 41% net margin to 27%, returns on assets of 32% to 33% essentially tied. The catch is what kind of earnings these are; drive-maker margins are cyclical weather, Apple's are climate. The market then does something quietly odd: it prices both at almost exactly 34-and-a-half times earnings. Identical multiples on a franchise and a cyclical at its peak mean the market is either underpaying for permanence or overpaying for the cycle. The dateline matters on that sentence.
Comparison updated 2026-07-10.
| Metric | AAPL | WDC |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $282.12 | $578.52 |
| Market cap | $4.15T | $223.9B |
| Sector | Computer Hardware | Computer Hardware |
| Stage | Mature | Growth |
| Implied growth (priced in) | +32.6% | — |
| P/E | 34.1 | 34.5 |
| P/B | 39.01 | 23.13 |
| P/S | 9.20 | 19.01 |
| EV/EBITDA | 27.9 | 61.5 |
| Revenue growth | +12.4% | +32.0% |
| Gross margin | 49.3% | 50.2% |
| Operating margin | 32.3% | 35.7% |
| Net margin | 27.1% | 40.7% |
| Return on equity | 115.1% | 49.6% |
| Return on assets | 33.0% | 31.9% |
| Return on invested capital | 61.6% | 26.5% |
| FCF yield | 3.1% | 1.3% |
| Dividend yield | 0.4% | 0.0% |
| Debt / equity | 0.85 | 0.33 |
| Current ratio | 1.07 | 1.49 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 7.61 | 7.86 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 5 / 9 | 6 / 9 |
Each week boothcheck ranks the stocks whose prices are betting on the most. Read the most stretched bets archive →
boothcheck is also on Android. Get the app on Google Play →
The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.