Seagate Technology PLC (STX) stock soared 7.27% in intraday trading on Wednesday, extending a pre-market rally sparked by the company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report released after the previous session's close. The data storage giant delivered results that significantly exceeded Wall Street expectations, fueled by surging demand for high-capacity hard disk drives from cloud data center customers amid the artificial intelligence boom.
Seagate reported adjusted earnings of $5.71 per share for the fiscal fourth quarter, up from $2.59 a year ago and well above the $5.09 consensus estimate. Revenue climbed 48.5% year-over-year to $3.63 billion, surpassing the $3.49 billion analysts had forecast. Adjusted gross margin reached a record 52.7%, while adjusted operating margin improved to a record 44.6%, both driven by pricing execution, favorable product mix, and strong data center demand that accounted for approximately 90% of exabyte shipments.
Looking ahead, Seagate issued fiscal first-quarter 2027 guidance that far exceeded Street expectations, forecasting revenue of $4.0 billion to $4.2 billion and adjusted earnings of approximately $7.30 per share, compared to analyst estimates of $3.75 billion and $5.80 per share, respectively. "As AI accelerates data generation and its value, we see durable long-term demand for mass capacity storage," said CEO Dave Mosley. Following the blowout results, multiple Wall Street analysts raised their price targets on the stock, including Rosenblatt to $1,400, Citigroup to $1,300, and JPMorgan to $1,240.