Seagate Profit Meets Estimate; Revenue Falls Shy

(RTTNews) - Hard disk drive maker Seagate Technology plc (STX) said Thursday that its fourth quarter profit fell 8% from last year, as revenue revenue declined 4%.

The company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, came in line with analysts' expectations, but its quarterly revenue fell shy of analysts' forecast.

"Throughout fiscal year 2014, Seagate delivered strong financial and operational performance and returned significant value to shareholders. We made strategic investments in our technology portfolio, which enabled us to continue to innovate into higher capacity and power efficient storage solutions, and expanding our capabilities to serve a broader storage customer base in the future through new cloud systems and solutions and flash technology for connected storage," said Steve Luczo, Seagate's chairman and chief executive officer.

Seagate also said its Board of Directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.43 per share, payable on August 22 to shareholders of record on August 8.

Seagate shares are currently losing 0.49% in after hours trading after closing the day's regular trading session at $59.49, down $1.82 or 2.97%. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $37.17 to $62.76.

The company reported net income for the fourth quarter of $320 million or $0.95 per share, compared to $348 million or $0.94 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the fourth quarter was $370 million or $1.10 per share, compared to $447 million or $1.20 per share in the prior year quarter.

On average, 25 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $1.10 per share for the fourth quarter. Analyst' estimates typically exclude special items.

Gross margin for the quarter improved to 28.05 from 27.4% a year earlier on a reported basis, and improved to 28.5% from 28.0% last year on an adjusted basis.

Revenue for the fourth quarter fell 3.8% to $3.30 billion from $3.43 billion in the same quarter last year. Twenty-three analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $3.33 billion for the fourth quarter.

In late May, Seagate Technology plc (STX) agreed to buy the assets of LSI's Accelerated Solutions Division and Flash Components Division from Avago Technologies Ltd. (AVGO) for $450 million in cash. Seagate said the acquisition strengthens its strategy to deliver a full suite of storage solutions.

Rival Western Digital Corp. (WDC) is scheduled to report fourth quarter results on July 30. Analysts currently expect the company to earn $1.74 per share on revenue of $3.59 billion for the quarter.