Re: SEG's Q2 2000 (ending Dec 31, 1999)
Thread- No excitement about beating consensus by 75%? Maybe I'm not tuned in enough, but it seems substantial to me. Is there any unexpected bad news in this release? -MikeM(From Florida)
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Seagate profit before charges beats forecast
PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan 11 - Seagate Technology Inc., the largest maker of computer-disk drives, on Tuesday said fiscal second-quarter earnings before special items fell 71 percent, though results beat expectations.
The Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company earned $30 million, or 14 cents a share, before special items in its fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with net income of $104 million, or 42 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.
Earnings before charges in the latest quarter exceeded Wall Street's consensus estimate of 8 cents per share, according to investment research firm First Call/Thomson Financial.
Quarterly revenue dropped 11 percent to $1.6 billion from $1.8 billion last year, though the company said its share of the original equipment manufacturing market rose.
Seagate shares closed on the New York Stock Exchange off 9/16 at 41-7/8. The earnings announcement came after the market closed.
"In what continues to be a challenging business environment ... our performance is attributable to our wide range of product offerings, increased ... market share and the benefits we have begun to realize from" a restructuring, Chief Executive Stephen Luczo said in a statement.
After the special items, Seagate reported a net loss of $35 million, or 16 cents a share, for the quarter. One-time costs included a restructuring charge of $23 million and gains related to its investment in Veritas Software Corp. VRTS .
Seagate, along with other disk drive companies such as Western Digital Corp., Quantum Corp. and others have slashed prices to maintain market share as the price of personal computers continues to plunge. These cheaper PCs use drives with less storage capacity and are not as profitable for the disk drive companies.
Both Seagate and Western Digital have eliminated jobs in the last 12 months as a result of slumping profits and sales.
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