Seagate Technology Q4 Profit Falls; To Buy Back Up To $2.5 Bln Shares

(RTTNews) - Seagate Technology plc. (STX) reported that its fourth-quarter net income declined to $348 million or $0.94 per share, from $1.013 billion or $2.37 per share in the same quarter last year.

Income from operations was $448 million, down from $1.057 billion last year.

Non-GAAP net income for the latest-quarter was $447 million and $1.20 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.19 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Revenues for the quarter declined to $3.425 billion from $4.482 billion in the prior year quarter. Twenty two analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $3.42 billion for the quarter.

"Looking ahead, we believe the market trends of data growth driven by cloud, mobile and open source advancement will present new and significant opportunities for Seagate. We will continue to balance near-term financial performance and long term strategic development while maximizing shareholder value," Steve Luczo, Seagate's chairman, president and chief executive officer said.

The company noted that its board has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.38 per share, which will be payable on August 21, 2013 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 7, 2013.

The company said that its board has authorized the company to repurchase up to $2.5 billion of its outstanding ordinary shares. The company, as a result of the July 2013 Authorization and other current repurchase authorizations, currently has a total authorized unutilized capacity for repurchases of approximately $3.3 billion under these authorizations.