Northrop Grumman Corporation vs Western Digital Corp — how do they compare? Northrop Grumman Corporation trades at $516.8 (market cap $73.16B), while Western Digital Corp trades at $480.51 (market cap $172.09B). The key difference: Western Digital Corp is far larger — about 2.4× Northrop Grumman Corporation's market cap, and Northrop Grumman Corporation pays the higher dividend (1.92%). Which is the better fit depends on your goals.
| NOC | WDC | |
|---|---|---|
Market Cap | $73.16B | $172.09B |
Sector | Industrials | Technology |
52-Week High | $768.02 | $746.23 |
52-Week Low | $496.02 | $95.03 |
Enterprise Value | $87.14B | $171.56B |
Dividend Yield | 1.92% | 0.13% |
Signals from Pluang's Aura AI — not financial advice
Northrop Grumman (NOC) trades at $518.58, up 0.7% with strong earnings beats in recent quarters. Technical indicators show a bearish trend with oversold RSI signals, while fundamentals remain solid with 10.48% net margin and 26.96% ROE. The company maintains a record $105 billion backlog and raised guidance after strong Q2 results, supported by rising defense spending globally.
NOC presents a compelling value with a 16.37 P/E below industry averages and a $618.43 consensus price target implying 19% upside. Risks include execution on massive contracts and defense budget volatility, but analyst sentiment is strongly bullish with 57% buy ratings. The stock offers defensive growth exposure amid geopolitical tensions.
Western Digital (WDC) trades at $477.30, up 2.1% today, reflecting strong momentum amid AI-driven storage demand. The stock shows bullish technical signals, with recent earnings beats and a consensus analyst price target of $676.70 suggesting 42% upside. Fundamentals are robust, with a net income margin of 71.97% in 2025 and positive cash flow trends, though revenue declined to $9.52B from prior years.
Outlook remains positive due to AI data growth catalysts and shareholder returns, but risks include competitive pressures and volatility from high expectations. The stock's valuation multiples like P/E of 17.73 appear reasonable given growth prospects, supporting a bullish bias with caution on execution risks.
Trailing returns across standard periods
Latest headlines on both assets
Northrop Grumman is a defense contractor that is diversified across short-cycle and long-cycle businesses. The firm's segments include aeronautics, mission systems, defense services, and space systems. The company's aerospace segment creates the fuselage for the massive F-35 program and produces various piloted and autonomous flight systems. Mission systems creates a variety of sensors and processors for defense hardware. The defense systems segment is a long-range missile manufacturer. Finally, the company's space systems segment produces various space structures, sensors, and satellites.
Read more on NOC →Western Digital is a vertically integrated supplier of data storage solutions, spanning both hard disk drives and solid-state drives. In the HDD market it forms a practical duopoly with Seagate, and it is the largest global producer of NAND flash chips for SSDs in a joint venture with competitor Kioxia.
Read more on WDC →