Strong Q4 Sales Growth Can't Save Seagate (STX) Shares as Results Miss

July 30, 2012 6:04 PM EDT Send to a Friend
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Shares of Seagate (Nasdaq: STX) have fallen more than 8 percent in Monday's after-hours session following a quarterly miss on both the top and bottom lines.

The company reported fourth-quarter 2012 sales rose nearly 57 percent to $4.48 billion, compared to the Street consensus estimate of $4.56 billion.

Net income came in at $1.01 billion, versus a profit of $119 million during the same quarter last year. Earnings per share totaled $2.46, or $2.41 on an adjusted basis. The Street was looking for EPS of $2.51.

The company said it generated about $1.4 billion in cash from operations during the quarter.

"As we announced previously, we were disappointed not to meet our revenue and margin plan for the fourth quarter as a result of the industry’s faster recovery from the supply chain disruption and an isolated supplier issue that we experienced," said Steve Luczo, Seagate Chairman and CEO. "Nevertheless, we are pleased to have achieved record revenue and unit shipments for the June quarter, which enabled Seagate to continue to return significant value to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases."

The company lifted its quarterly dividend from 25 cents per share to 32 cents per share.

Seagate's story has been in close watch recently amid rumors the company could make a go at OCZ Technology (NYSE: OCZ). OCZ shares had been up more than 50 percent since July 19th given the speculation. Shares of OCZ are getting whacked Monday afternoon, however, as Seagate announced the hiring of Gary Gentry to lead the company's solid state drive business. Most speculators believed Seagate would buy OCZ to gain exposure in this segment.

On the conference call, an exec said Seagate is expecting first-quarter sales of at least $4 billion with gross margin of at least 30 percent. Analysts are currently expecting Q1 sales of $4.62 billion. The company is anticipating FY13 non-GAAP earnings growth of at least 25 percent.


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