Western Digital Posts Lower Profit

IRVINE — Western Digital Corp. posted lower profit for the fiscal third quarter while revenue rose.

The manufacturer of hard disk drives said net income for the quarter ended March 31 fell 2% to $19.4 million, or 42 cents a share, from $19.7 million, or 40 cents a share, for the prior-year period. Revenue rose 38% to $728 million from $529 million.

For the first nine months, the company posted net income of $64.2 million, or $1.31 a share, which included a one-time, pretax gain of $17.3 million associated with the sale of the multimedia products unit. Net income for the first three quarters of the prior year totaled $96.9 million, or $1.95 a share. Revenue increased 33% to $2 billion from $1.5 billion.