CAT vs WDC: Which Is the Better Buy?

Side-by-side comparison of Caterpillar Inc. and Western Digital Corporation — fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals. Updated 2026-08-06.
Caterpillar Inc. · Industrials
$940.12
-39.4% upside to fair value
Grade C High Quality
VS
Western Digital Corporation · Technology
$519.17
-28.7% upside to fair value
Med Conviction Grade C+
QuantHub Verdict
WDC has more upside to fair value (-28.7%). WDC trades at a lower forward P/E (27.8x). These are model outputs — not personalized investment advice. See all research →
Valuation & Fundamentals
Metric CAT WDC
Current Price $940.12 $519.17
Fair Value Estimate $569.47 $370.00
Upside to Fair Value -39.4% -28.7%
Market Cap $433.1B $178.9B
Forward P/E 46.6x 27.8x
EV / EBITDA 29.7x 37.3x
Price / Sales 6.1x 13.9x
Price / FCF 37.8x 51.0x
Revenue Growth YoY +22.2% +35.7%
Gross Margin 32.5% 48.9%
Operating Margin 16.6% 34.9%
Return on Equity 47.5% 43.4%
Dividend Yield 0% 0.1%
FCF Yield 2.64% 2.0%
Analyst Consensus Hold Buy
Investment Thesis
CAT — Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of agricultural and construction machinery, operating within the Industrials sector. The company demonstrates high business quality with a durable competitive moat supported by strong brand recognition, cost advantages, and intangible assets. It posted robust revenue growth of 22.2% and earnings growth of 27.3% in the most recent quarter, reflecti…
WDC — Western Digital Corporation
Western Digital is now a pure-play, duopoly hard-disk-drive manufacturer, having spun off its NAND flash business as SanDisk in February 2025 and sold its remaining SanDisk stake for $3.1 billion in February 2026. It is riding the same AI-storage supercycle as SanDisk and Micron, but from the mass-capacity nearline HDD side: hyperscalers are buying every high-capacity drive WDC can make for AI da…
Accumulation Zones
Metric CAT WDC
Zone Low $427.10 $278.00
Zone High $484.05 $315.00
In Buy Zone? No No
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