Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) was supposed to beat earnings expectations.  The disk-drive maker reported earnings that it missed expectations.  The June quarter sales rose to $4.48 billion and earnings were $2.41 per share.  The problem is that the consensus was $4.55 billion in sales and $2.50 in earnings per share. The report is a very big disappointment considering that Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) blew the doors off of its earnings and raised its guidance with earnings just last week.

One culprit may be that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) tends to offer more external drives from the WD brand in the stores, and then there is the pesky issue that 1 Terabyte costs less and less.  You could almost joke that storage will one day be free.

Seagate shares closed up 1.4% at $40.43 on the day against a 52-week range of $9.05 to $32.55, but the stock is down 35 at $29.50 in the after-hours reaction.  Shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) closed up 0.6% at $40.17 against a 52-week range of $22.64 to $44.44, and its shares are down 1.1% at $39.72 in the after-hours trading session.

JON C. OGG

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