Seagate Technology jumped in early trading Thursday as the data storage company reported better-than-expected quarterly results, thanks to its move to cloud computing. STX stock climbed above its 200-day moving average.
The manufacturer of disk drives reported adjusted earnings of 16 cents per share on revenue of $1.89 billion for its fiscal second quarter, ended Dec. 30. Analysts expected Seagate to report earnings of 9 cents on revenue of $1.85 billion.
Seagate received multiple price-target increases from Wall Street on Thursday. That helped STX stock soar 10.9%, closing at 69.01 on the stock market today.
"Seagate is effectively managing through a tough macroeconomic environment," Chief Executive Dave Mosley said in a written statement with the earnings report. "We are executing our industry leading product road map, which positions us well as the markets ultimately recover."
Outlook On STX Stock
"We think Seagate stock continues to benefit from higher demand in the cloud while we view its declining exposure to PCs as a positive," CFRA analyst Angelo Zino said in a note to clients. Zino raised his price target on STX stock to 69, from 53.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring raised his price target to 72, from 69.
"Big picture, we believe Seagate is in the midst of the recovery we pointed to in our 2023 Industry Outlook, as inventory at customers continues to get worked down and China slowly emerges from Covid lockdowns," Woodring wrote in a note.
Seagate's primary competitor is Western Digital. WDC stock climbed 5.9% to 43.76. Western Digital will report fiscal second-quarter results on Tuesday, after the market close.
Please follow Brian Deagon on Twitter at @IBD_BDeagon for more on tech stocks, analysis and financial markets.
