Seagate (STX) Gains After Raising Sales and Earnings Guidance For Q4, Analyst Raises PT to Reflect Higher Estimates

Shares of Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX) are up 1.5% today after the company raised its sales and profit guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter in 2021.

On April 22, the company said it is calling for sales between $2.7 billion and $3.0 billion and EPS between $1.45 per share and $1.75 per share. This range is now updated to a range between $2.80 billion and $3.1 billion with EPS between $1.70 and $2.00.

"Strong, broad-based demand for our products into the mass capacity markets and distribution channel is driving upside to our fourth quarter outlook," said Dave Mosley, Seagate’s chief executive officer.

“We are excited by the positive momentum we are seeing globally and leveraging the agility of our manufacturing operations to address the rapidly changing demand environment.”

Rosenblatt analyst Kevin Cassidy raised the price target on the Buy-rated stock to $110.00 per share from $95.00 per share.

“We are further convinced that Seagate is well positioned to grow revenue, expand gross margin and profitability over the next several quarters. Importantly, Seagate's board of directors has targeted 70+% of free cash flow as capital returns,” the analyst commented in a note.

“The company was able to increase utilization to meet the unforecasted Chia cryptocurrency demand. In our view, management is viewing the Chia opportunitistically, which we view as prudent. CapEx plans have not changed at 4%-6% of total revenue. If the cryptocurrency demand slows, the company will not be caught with excess capacity. The company's core business of mass capacity nearline HDDs remains strong with both Cloud Servcie Providers and Enterprise customers. Mr. Romano expects the company can increase capacity to help supply catch up to demand in the next few quarters.”

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