shares of western digital corp wdc dropped 21 in premarket trading thursday after the data storage company reported fiscal firstquarter profit that was well below expectations even as revenue beat and also provided a downbeat outlook for the current quarter net income fell to 27 million or 8 cents a share from 610 million or 193 a share in the yearago period excluding nonrecurring items adjusted earnings per share dropped to 20 cents from 249 and missed the factset consensus of 38 cents revenue fell 260 to 374 billion but was above the factset consensus of 359 billion cost of revenue fell but less than sales down 186 to 276 billion as gross margin contracted to 263 from 330 for the fiscal second quarter the company expects to report a range from a pershare loss of 25 cents to eps of 5 cents compared with the factset eps consensus of 27 cents and revenue is estimated to be 290 billion to 310 billion below the factset consensus of 344 billion chief executive david goeckeler said the consumerled downturn in the industry is showing signs of stabilization the stock has plunged 272 over the past three months through wednesday while the spdr technology select sector etf xlk has dropped 102 and the sp 500 spx has lost 48