One of the eminent players in the hard drive and storage solutions space, Seagate Technologies (STX), unveiled the BlackArmor PS110 USB 3.0 portable external hard drive performance kit for notebook computers at the consumer electronics show (CES) in Las Vegas.
This all-in-one USB 3.0 toolkit has the ability to generate speeds that are up to three times higher than its USB 2.0 predecessor. The high-speed USB 3.0 takes just four minutes to transfer a 25GB HD movie as compared to 14 minutes taken by a normal USB 2.0 drive.
Although consumer electronics sales will most likely tumble this quarter coming off the seasonal strength in December, we believe consumer spending is on an up-trend. This should be good news for Seagate, as it supplies products to big consumer electronic companies which are expected to increase their orders going forward.
For the 2010 fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Seagate is $2.24, a signficant growth over the recession-hit year-ago period. This $2.24 earnings estimate has also increased by 4 cents over the last one month.Out of the 21 analysts covering STX stock, five have raised their estimates for the current fiscal year, with no negative revisions. For the next fiscal year, five analysts have raised their estimates in the last 30 days, while one has lowered it.
The company had positive earnings surprises in the last two quarters, though its performance prior to that was quite poor on this front. For the upcoming quarter the most accurate earnings estimate for the company is 65 cents per share, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate by just 1 cent. This means that the company is not expected to produce a signficant earnings surprise in the next quarter.
While we like Seagate’s strong cash-flow generation abilities and robust hard disk drive business, the stock appears to lack a near-term catalyst to drive it higher.
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