Fly News Breaks for December 13, 2018
WDC, STX
Dec 13, 2018 | 17:13 EDT
Deutsche Bank analyst Sidney Ho resumed coverage of both Seagate Technology (STX) and Western Digital (WDC) with Hold ratings, and price targets of $42 and $45, respectively. The analyst said in a note partially titled "Cloudy near term, Cloud is also the future" that while hard disk drive, or HDD, is a mature industry, several interesting trends have emerged. First, nearline HDDs that are suited for mass storage in cloud data centers could drive 60%+ of the industry revenue by 2022 with above industry average margins. Second, technology innovations in the next 5-10 years could continue to drive cost improvements in the HDD industry. Third, while declining NAND flash memory prices have led to rising adoption of solid state drives, or SSDs, the cannibalization focuses on PCs and mission-critical enterprise applications, while nearline HDDs appear to be more immune. The analyst concluded that "while HDD revenues appear to be on a slow decline, changing mix will likely drive better profitability."
News For STX;WDC From the Last 2 Days
WDC
Apr 17, 2024 | 06:21 EDT
BofA raised the firm's price target on Western Digital to $85 from $75 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm sees both the HDD and NAND businesses being close to the bottom of the cycle and sees a potential unlock of shareholder value as the company remains on track to split the HDD and NAND business in the second half of 2024.