Seagate forecasts revenue below estimates amid weak memory chip demand
(Reuters) - Computer hard drive maker Seagate Technology forecast second-quarter revenue below estimates on Thursday, a sign that demand stays weak for its data storage products amid a PC market slump.
Seagate expects revenue for the current quarter to be $1.55 billion, plus or minus $150 million, the midpoint of which was below estimates of $1.61 billion, according to LSEG data.
High borrowing costs and fears over the economic outlook have over the past year slammed demand for memory chips after a pandemic-driven boom.
Demand also remains low in China, the market for nearly a third of Seagate's revenue, amid an uneven economic recovery in the country after it abandoned its strict zero-Covid policy.
The June-September period, which analysts say is usually a weak quarter, saw revenue of $1.45 billion, compared with $2.04 billion, a year earlier.
Gross margin for the first quarter shrank to more than 10% from 23.7% reported last year, sapped by the inventory glut in the sector.
Rival Western Digital said in June cloud companies will take another couple of quarters to clear out excess chip stocks.
Seagate reported a net loss of $184 million, or 88 cents per share, compared with a profit of $29 million, or 14 cents per share, a year ago.
It expects a second-quarter adjusted loss of 10 cents per share, plus or minus 20 cents, compared with analysts' estimates of a loss of 1 cent.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)
