Is Western Digital Corporation (WDC) the best hardware stock to buy now?

Recently I published the list Best hardware stocks to buy now. In this article, we’ll look at where Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) fights against the other best hardware stocks you can buy now.

The computer hardware industry consists of personal computers, PC peripherals, storage devices and servers for the high-growth data center industry. According to a report from a business research company, the computer hardware industry is valued at $714.8 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow at a combined annual growth rate of 6.5% to $76.1 billion by 2025. Historical growth factors, including supply chain globalization, the rise of the internet, and the revolution in personal computing, remain effective. It is further driven by the latest trends such as edge and quantum computing, the rise of AI and data centers, and hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The global PC market is one of the biggest components of the hardware industry. According to a January 9 report by IDC, PC shipments rose 1.8% in the fourth quarter of 2024, reaching 68.9 million worldwide. Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Worldwide Mobile Device Tracker, said the entire market is slowing growth, but the fourth quarter was supported by Chinese government subsidies. The report also pointed to growing concerns about the rising threat of new tariffs in January 2025, noting that many brands experienced pull-in in December as a precautionary measure to preempt tariffs.

However, a recent report issued by IDC on April 8 revealed that the PC freight market was not affected by tariffs as shipments increased 4.9% in the first quarter of 2025. Jean Philippe Bouchard is IDC’s global research vice president of mobile device trackers, and it has been revealed that these increases are eschewing these increases to avoid trying Tercentec. He said the market has been barely affected by the first round, but the second round, announced on April 2, could lead to an inflationary impact, which could negatively affect freight for the next quarter.

We used Finviz Stock Screener and Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 hedge fund database to curate our list of the 10 best hardware stocks to buy now. First, we used a screener to aggregate a list of computer hardware stocks and sorted the list by market capitalization. These stocks were then ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders.