Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) (the “Company” or “Seagate”) today reported financial results for the quarter ended December 29, 2017. For the second quarter, the Company reported revenue of $2.9 billion, gross margin of 30.1%, net income of $159 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.55. On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes the net impact of certain items, Seagate reported gross margin of 30.4%, net income of $431 million and diluted earnings per share of $1.48.
During the second quarter, the Company generated $850 million in cash flow from operations and $773 million in free cash flow. Cash and cash equivalents totaled approximately $2.6 billion at the end of the quarter. There were 285 million ordinary shares issued and outstanding as of the end of the quarter.
“Achieving year-over-year revenue and profitability growth and significant cash flow generation in the December quarter reflects Seagate’s solid execution and competitiveness of our storage solutions portfolio, particularly in the cloud-based environments. With our leading storage technology platforms, manufacturing and supply-chain management capabilities, Seagate is in a strong position to support ever-increasing storage demand from diverse markets and applications. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on operational excellence and accomplishing our financial and shareholder-return objectives,” said Dave Mosley, Seagate’s chief executive officer.
For a detailed reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results, see accompanying financial tables.
Seagate has issued a Supplemental Financial Information document, which is available on Seagate’s Investors Relations website at www.seagate.com/investors.
Quarterly Cash Dividend
The Board of Directors of the Company (the “Board”) has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.63 per share, which will be payable on April 4, 2018 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 21, 2018. The payment of any future quarterly dividends will be at the discretion of the Board and will be dependent upon Seagate’s financial position, results of operations, available cash, cash flow, capital requirements and other factors deemed relevant by the Board.
Investor Communications
Seagate management will hold a public webcast today at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time that can be accessed on its Investor Relations website at www.seagate.com/investors. During today’s webcast, the Company will provide an outlook for its third fiscal quarter of 2018, including key underlying assumptions.
An archived audio webcast of this event will be available on Seagate’s Investors Relations website at www.seagate.com/investors shortly following the event conclusion.
About Seagate
To learn more about the Company’s products and services, visit www.seagate.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Spiceworks, YouTube and subscribe to our blog. The contents of our website and social media channels are not a part of this release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, each as amended, including, in particular, statements about the Company’s plans, strategies and prospects, financial projections, estimates of industry growth, market demand, shifts in technology, its supply-chain management capabilities and dividend issuance plans for the fiscal quarter ending March 30, 2018 and beyond. These statements identify prospective information and may include words such as “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “projects,” “should,” “may,” “will,” or the negative of these words, variations of these words and comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date of this report and are based on management’s current views and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are conditioned upon and also involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties, and other factors may be beyond the Company’s control and may pose a risk to the Company’s operating and financial condition. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: items that may be identified during its financial statement closing process that cause adjustments to the estimates included in this report; the uncertainty in global economic conditions; the impact of the variable demand and adverse pricing environment for disk drives; the Company’s ability to successfully qualify, manufacture and sell its disk drive products in increasing volumes on a cost-effective basis and with acceptable quality; the impact of competitive product announcements; the Company’s ability to achieve projected cost savings in connection with restructuring plans; possible excess industry supply with respect to particular disk drive products; disruptions to its supply chain or production capabilities; unexpected advances in competing technologies or changes in market trends; the development and introduction of products based on new technologies and expansion into new data storage markets; the Company’s ability to comply with certain covenants in its credit facilities with respect to financial ratios and financial condition tests; currency fluctuations that may impact the Company’s margins and international sales; cyber-attacks or other data breaches that disrupt the Company’s operations or result in the dissemination of proprietary or confidential information and cause reputational harm; and fluctuations in interest rates. Information concerning risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results to differ materially from the expectations described in this press release is contained in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 4, 2017, the “Risk Factors” section of which is incorporated into this press release by reference, and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any subsequent date and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made.
The inclusion of Seagate’s website address in this press release is intended to be an inactive textual reference only and not an active hyperlink. The information contained in, or that can be accessed through, Seagate’s website and social media channels are not part of this press release.
(a) The information in this column was derived from the Company’s audited Consolidated Balance Sheet as of June 30, 2017.
Use of non-GAAP financial information
The Company uses non-GAAP measures of adjusted revenue, gross margin, net income, diluted earnings per share and operating expenses which are adjusted from results based on GAAP to exclude certain expenses, gains and losses. These non-GAAP financial measures may be provided to enhance the user’s overall understanding of the Company’s current financial performance and its prospects for the future. Specifically, the Company believes non-GAAP results provide useful information to both management and investors as these non-GAAP results exclude certain expenses, gains and losses that it believes are not indicative of its core operating results and because it is similar to the approach used in connection with the financial models and estimates published by financial analysts who follow the Company.
These non-GAAP results are some of the primary measurements management uses to assess the Company’s performance, allocate resources and plan for future periods. Reported non-GAAP results should only be considered as supplemental to results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and not considered as a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP results. These non-GAAP measures may differ from the non-GAAP measures reported by other companies in its industry.
A For the three and six months ended December 29, 2017, Revenue has been adjusted on a non-GAAP basis to exclude the favorable adjustments for sales of certain discontinued products.
B For the three and six months ended December 29, 2017, Cost of revenue has been adjusted on a non-GAAP basis to exclude amortization of intangibles associated with acquisitions and write off of certain inventory and other charges related to restructuring.
C For the three and six months ended December 29, 2017, Product development expenses have been adjusted on a non-GAAP basis to exclude the impact of write off of certain fixed assets and other charges related to restructuring.
D For the three and six months ended December 29, 2017, Marketing and administrative expenses have been adjusted on a non-GAAP basis to exclude the write off of certain fixed assets related to restructuring.
E For the three and six months ended December 29, 2017, Amortization of intangibles primarily related to our acquisitions has been excluded on a non-GAAP basis.
F For the three and six months ended December 29, 2017, Restructuring and other net, has been adjusted on a non-GAAP basis primarily related to reductions in our workforce as a result of our ongoing focus on cost efficiencies in all areas of our business.
G For the three and six months ended December 29, 2017, Other expense, net has been adjusted on a non-GAAP basis to exclude the net impact of losses recognized on the early redemption and repurchase of debt and impact of our disposed data service business.
H For the three and six months ended December 29, 2017, Provision for income taxes represents the tax effects of non-GAAP adjustments determined using a hybrid with and without method and effective tax rate for the applicable adjustment and jurisdiction and a provisional tax expense of $208 million for the re-measurement of our U.S. deferred tax assets at the lower 21% tax rate resulting from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted on December 22, 2017.