HDD Manufacturers WD & Seagate Fall Nearly 50% in Quarterly Net Income
Posted on January 30, 2016
Today, Western Digital announced its earnings for the second quarter of its fiscal year. According to WDC (NASDAQ: WDC), the company had a quarterly revenue of $3.3 billion, down almost 17% from the $3.9 billion revenue they had this quarter last year. The company’s net income went down 54% over the same period -- falling from $438 million to $251 million.
Meanwhile, Western Digital’s main rival in the thinning hard drive field -- Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) -- also released earnings reports for the second fiscal quarter. Seagate’s revenue was down from this quarter last year: 21% down from $3.7 billion, landing at $2.9 billion. Seagate’s non-GAAP net income for the quarter was 46% lower than last years -- $311 million this year versus $495mm last year.
Western Digital’s non-GAAP income per share for their second fiscal quarter this year was $1.60; Seagate’s same-period result was $0.82 per share. Western Digital is down from $2.26 a share in 2015. Seagate is down from $1.35 per share.
Western Digital’s CEO, Steve Milligan, added, “We continue to execute well as we manage our business within an increasingly challenging global economic environment” -- a phrase that could easily have come from a Random Business Jargon Generator. Milligan finished by saying, “our storage shipments for the December quarter grew to 69.1 exabytes.”
Not to be outdone by Steve Milligan’s business jargon, Seagate CEO and chairman, Steve Luczo said in his own report: “Our results this quarter reflect the achievement of many of our operational goals, including improved profitability in our product portfolio and effective cost controls.”
It is likely that both companies are hurting from the growth of the SSD market segment.
As for Random Business Jargon Generators used by successful Steves, our own Editor-in-Chief is researching one for himself. Stay tuned for that and more in the world of PC hardware and gaming news at Gamers Nexus.
- Keegan "HornetSting" Gallick.