X-bit labs

Seagate Reports Financial Results for Quarter and Year.

Category: Storage

by Grigoriy Gubankov

[ 07/17/2003 | 08:02 AM ]

Seagate Technology reported revenue of $1.55 billion, net income of $160 million, and diluted earnings per share of $0.33 for the quarter ended June 27, 2003, compared to revenue of $1.47 billion, a net loss of $198 million, and a loss per share of $0.49 in the year-ago quarter. The year-ago quarter results include a pre-tax charge for deferred compensation of $179 million and costs related to debt refinancing of $93 million.

For the fiscal year ended June 27, 2003, Seagate reported revenue of $6.49 billion, net income of $641 million, and diluted earnings per share of $1.36, compared to $6.09 billion, $153 million and $0.36, respectively, for the fiscal year ended June 28, 2002.

Seagate especially noted increased demand for its enterprise-level hard drives, namely Cheetah 10K and 15K models of the 6^th and the 3^rd generation, respectively. Additionally, the company said that it is very satisfied with the sales of Barracuda consumer-level hard drives and said that majority (66 %) of these HDDs shipped during this quarter were made on 80GB platters.

Financial Review

• Pricing and Channel Inventory: Seasonal price declines for the quarter were in line with expectations. Seagate ended the June quarter with less than five weeks of inventory in the channel for personal storage products.
• Unit Shipments: The company shipped 15.9 million disc drives in the fourth fiscal quarter, a 9% increase compared to the year-ago quarter and a 5% decrease from the previous quarter. For the fiscal year just ended, Seagate shipped 67.5 million disc drives, which represents a 23% increase over the prior year.
• Gross Margin: Gross margin for the fourth fiscal quarter was 27.6%, compared to 26.8% in the prior quarter. Seagate claims that the increase in gross margin reflects the strength of its enterprise business and higher manufacturing yields from products introduced during the previous two quarters, thought the company says that the increase of gross margin was partially offset by lower overall unit volumes combined with expected seasonal price declines for the June quarter.

Dividend Information

The company has declared a quarterly cash distribution of $0.04 per share to be paid on or before August 22, 2003 to all common shareholders of record as of August 8, 2003.