Wissam Jabre
Chief Financial Officer at Western Digital
Thanks, David and good afternoon, everyone. As David mentioned, fiscal fourth-quarter revenue exceeded our expectations. Total revenue for the quarter was $2.7 billion, down 5% sequentially and 41% Year-over-Year. Non-GAAP loss per share was $1.98. Looking at end-markets for the fiscal fourth-quarter cloud represented 37% of total revenue at $1 billion, down 18% sequentially and 53% Year-over-Year. Sequentially, the decline was primarily due to a decrease in capacity enterprise drive shipments.
Nearline bit shipments were 59 exabytes, down 26% sequentially, driven by ongoing weakness at cloud customers. The year-over-year decrease was primarily due to declines in both hard drive and flash product shipments. Client represented 39% of total revenue at $1 billion, up 6% sequentially and down 37% year-over-year. Sequentially, the increase was driven by growth in bit shipments for gaming consoles. The year-over-year decrease was due to declines in flash pricing and lower client SSD and hard drive unit shipments for PC applications. Consumer represented 24% of total revenue at $0.6 billion, up 3% sequentially and down 19% year-over-year.
Sequentially, the increase was primarily due to higher retail SSD shipments. The year-over-year decrease was driven by price declines in flash and lower retail hard drive shipments. For the fiscal year, revenue was $12.3 billion, down 34% from fiscal 2022. Non-GAAP gross margin declined 17.2 percentage points to 15.7%, and non-GAAP operating margin decreased 21.8 percentage points to negative 4.8%. Non-GAAP loss per share was $3.59. Looking at end markets for fiscal year 2023, cloud revenue decreased 34% year-over-year, primarily due to reduced shipments of capacity enterprise hard drives and enterprise SSDs.
Client revenue decreased 39% year-over-year, primarily due to declines in flash pricing as well as lower client SSD and hard drive unit shipments for PC applications. Lastly, consumer revenue decreased 26% for the year as growth in retail SSD bit shipments was more than offset by broad-based flash price decline and lower consumer hard drive shipments. Turning now to revenue by segment. In the fiscal fourth quarter, HDD revenue was $1.3 billion, down 13% sequentially and 39% year-over-year. Sequentially, total HDD exabyte shipments decreased 18% and average price per unit decreased 9% to $99.
On a year-over-year basis, HDD exabyte shipments decreased 38% and average price per unit decreased 17%. Flash revenue was $1.4 billion, up 5% sequentially and down 43% year-over-year. Sequentially, Flash ASPs decreased 6% on a blended basis and 9% on a like-for-like basis. Flash bit shipments increased 15% sequentially and 7% year-over-year. Moving to costs and expenses, please note that my comments will be related to non-GAAP results unless stated otherwise. Gross margin for the fiscal fourth quarter was 3.9%, down 6.7 percentage points sequentially and 28.4 percentage points year-over-year.
This includes $272 million in costs or 10.2 percentage points for manufacturing underutilization, flash inventory write-downs and other items. HDD gross margin was 20.7%, down 3.6 percentage points sequentially and 7.5 percentage points year-over-year. Sequentially, the decrease was primarily due to lower capacity enterprise volume as well as higher underutilization-related charges. Underutilization charges were $76 million or 5.9 percentage points. Flash gross margin was negative 11.9%, down 6.9 percentage points sequentially and 47.8 percentage points year-over-year.
Underutilization charges due to the reduced manufacturing volumes were $135 million, and inventory write-downs were $27 million, resulting in an 11.8 percentage point reduction. We continue to tightly manage our operating expenses of $582 million for the quarter, down $20 million sequentially and $178 million year-over-year. Operating loss in the quarter was $478 million, driven mainly by underutilization charges, inventory write-downs, and other items totaling $272 million. Income tax expense was $57 million for fiscal fourth quarter and $237 million for fiscal year 2023.
Despite a consolidated loss, we continue to have taxable income in certain geographies resulting in taxes payable in those areas. Fiscal fourth quarter loss per share was $1.98, inclusive of $15 million dividend associated with the convertible preferred equity. Operating cash flow for the fourth quarter was an outflow of $68 million and free cash flow was an outflow of $219 million. Cash capital expenditures, which include the purchase of property planning and equipment and activity related to our flash joint ventures on the cash flow statement were $151 million.
Gross debt outstanding was $7.1 billion at the end of fiscal fourth quarter. Trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA at the end-of-the fourth-quarter, as defined in our credit agreement, was $1.6 billion, resulting in a gross leverage ratio of 4.5 times compared to 2.8 times in the fiscal third quarter. As a reminder, the credit agreement includes $0.7 billion in depreciation add back associated with the flash joint ventures. This is not reflected in the cash-flow statement. Please refer to the earnings presentation on the Investor Relations website for further details.
During the fiscal fourth quarter, we executed an amendment to our credit agreements. These amendments include modifications to the leverage ratio requirements applicable through the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, which provide additional financial flexibility in the near term. We also extended the commitment under the delayed-draw term-loan agreement to August 14, 2023. Please refer to our earnings presentation for details. At the end-of-the quarter, total liquidity was $4.9 billion, including cash and cash equivalents of $2 billion, undrawn revolver capacity of $2.25 billion, and unused delayed-draw term-loan facility of $600 million.
Before I cover guidance for the fiscal first quarter, I'll discuss our business outlook. For fiscal first quarter, sequentially, we expect both HDD and Flash revenue to be relatively stable. In fiscal first quarter, we are continuing to adjust production to better match demand and anticipate underutilization charges to impact both HDD and Flash gross margins along with product mix pressures on Flash ASP. Beyond the fiscal first quarter, we anticipate both HDD and Flash revenue to improve through the remainder of fiscal year 2024, driven by normalizing demand in storage, as well as higher average content per unit in Flash.
Gross margin is expected to gradually improve driven by higher HDD volume and lower underutilization charges in both Flash and HDD. We will continue to tightly manage our cost structure and expenses as we navigate the challenging environment. For fiscal year 2024, we expect capital expenditures to decline significantly. I'll now turn to guidance. For the fiscal first quarter, our non-GAAP guidance is as follows. We expect revenue to be in the range of $2.55 billion to $2.75 billion. We expect gross margin to be between 2.5% and 4.5%, which includes underutilization charges across Flash and HDD totaling $200 million to $220 million.
We expect operating expenses to be between $570 million to $590 million. Interest and other expenses are expected to be approximately $90 million. We expect income tax expense to be between $30 million and $40 million for the fiscal first quarter and $130 million to $170 million for fiscal year 2024. We expect the loss per share of $1.80 to $2.10, assuming approximately 323 million shares outstanding. I'll now turn the call back over to David.
