We recently published a list of 10 Best Hardware Stocks To Buy Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) stands against other best hardware stocks to buy now.
The computer hardware industry comprises personal computers, PC peripherals, storage devices, and servers for the high-growth data center industry. According to a report by The Business Research Company, the computer hardware industry was valued at $714.8 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.5% to reach $761 billion by 2025. The market is expected to expand further at a CAGR of 6.3% to reach $972 billion by 2029 eventually. The historic growth factors including the globalization of the supply chain, the rise of the internet, and the revolution in personal computing are still valid. It has been further boosted 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 largest components of the hardware industry. According to a January 9 report by IDC, the PC shipments grew 1.8% during Q4 of 2024, with global volumes reaching 68.9 million. Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at IDC Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers noted that overall the market is experiencing slower growth, however, the fourth quarter was aided by the Chinese government subsidies. The report also pointed out increased concern regarding the increased threats of new tariffs back in January 2025, noting that many brands experienced pull-ins during December as a preventive measure to get ahead of the tariffs.
However, a more recent report published by IDC on April 8, revealed that the PC shipment market remained unaffected by the tariffs as the shipments grew by 4.9% during the first quarter of 2025. Jean Philippe Bouchard, research vice-president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers noted that these increased shipments were largely a result of the entire ecosystem trying to accelerate the deliveries to avoid the first round of tariffs. He noted that although the market remained largely unaffected by the first round, however, the second round announced on April 2 could lead to an inflationary impact, thereby negatively impacting the shipments in the following quarters.
To curate the list of the 10 best hardware stocks to buy now, we used the Finviz stock screener and Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 hedge funds database. Firstly, we aggregated a list of computer hardware stocks using the screener and sorted the list by market capitalization. Next, we ranked these stocks in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders.
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