Seagate profit rises 62 percent, but key notebook market weakens
Hard-drive maker Seagate Technology’s third-quarter profit jumped 62 percent from a year ago, though the company acknowledged weakness in the market for drives used in notebook computers.
In the quarter ending March 28, Seagate earned $344 million, or 65 cents per share, compared with $212 million, or 37 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue grew 10 percent to $3.1 billion from $2.8 billion last year.
Excluding one-time items, Seagate earned $369 million, or 70 cents per share. On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting the company to post a profit of 69 cents per share on revenue of $3.25 billion.
Seagate Chief Executive Bill Watkins said the results were driven by strong global demand for storage, but the company fell short in the notebook and retail market.
“We continue to believe that there is significant opportunity in the notebook and retail markets – two areas where the company recently has not performed to expectation,” Watkins said Tuesday. “We expect to see improved performance in these areas in the June quarter and through the calendar year,” Watkins said in a company statement.”
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