Seagate Sets Tone for Western Digital (STX, WDC)

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) just gave us earnings ahead of disk drive and storage rival Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) earnings due on Thursday.  Internal guidance from the sector and higher analysts’ estimates had already helped both companies recover exponentially from 52-week lows.  Seagate turned in earnings of $0.35 EPS (after items of $0.23 from EPS) and $2.66 billion in revenues. Thomson Reuters had estimates at $0.46 EPS on $2.62 billion in revenues.

The company offered guidance of $2.75 – $2.85 billion in revenues and Thomson Reuters has next quarter estimates of $0.55 EPS and $2.75 billion in revenues.

The company said gross margins came in at 24.5% and it guided next quarter margins at 22% to 26%.  It also said it had 46.3 million disk drive unit shipments.

Be advised that this should all be considered incomplete data as the company said it would offer updated fiscal 2010 guidance in its conference call.  But one thing the company said was cautious:

• “While visibility has improved throughout the calendar year, the ongoing uncertainty in global economic conditions makes it difficult to predict product demand and other related matters, which makes it more likely that Seagate’s actual results could differ materially from current expectations.”

Again, consider this unfinished business until after its guidance for 2010 in the conference call. After the guidance come out from the conference call, this will have likely just set the tone for Western Digital stock for its earnings later in the week.  Seagate closed flat today at $15.55.  Shares seem to be trading around $15.59 or $15.60 in the after-hours and the 52-week trading range is $2.98 to $16.40.

JON C. OGG