Zacks Industry Rank Analysis Highlights: Seagate Technology, STEC, Inc., Research in Motion, Palm and Apple

Zacks Industry Rank Analysis is written by Charles Rotblut, CFA, Senior Market Analyst for Zacks.com.

This Week: Second-Quarter Earnings Outlook

Though the Nasdaq has been one of the best-performing indexes this year, tech stocks could be poised for further gains in the second half of the year.

In particular, demand for storage devices and smartphones is showing signs of strength. During the past 2 weeks, several brokerage analysts have raised their profit projections on makers of these products.

Storage Device Revenues Higher Than Anticipated

Two storage makers recently raised their quarterly guidance.

Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) said last week that both unit demand and pricing were "tracking favorably". As a result, the company expects fiscal fourth-quarter revenues to be in a range of $2.2 to $2.3 billion. Previously, STX had guided for revenues of $1.9 to $2.2 billion.

Gross margins should also be better at approximately 15%.

Ten of the 17 covering analysts promptly raised their projections in response, narrowing the expected loss by 15 cents to 16 cents per share. Expectations for fiscal 2010 were revised as well, with profit of 52 cents now expected.

Strong sales of its ZeusIOPS solid-state drive led STEC, Inc. (Nasdaq: STEC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) to recently raise its second-quarter guidance. Solid-state drives are faster and use less energy than the hard drives currently used by most computers. Though still more costly, solid-state drives are starting to appear in more high-end laptops.

STEC now expects second-quarter non-GAAP profits to total between 32 and 36 cents per share, versus the previous forecast of 20 to 22 cents per share. Nearly all of the covering brokerage analysts raised their forecasts in response, pushing the consensus earnings estimate up to 32 cents per share. (Full-year projections were also revised, sending the consensus estimate 36 cents higher to $1.08 per share.)

Smartphones Selling Well

The bullish guidance for the hard drive makers came as smartphone makers Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) and Palm (Nasdaq: PALM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) delivered comparatively good earnings reports.

Though RIMM's fiscal first-quarter results were not well received, the company did beat expectations with profits of 98 cents per share. More importantly, 29 analysts raised their fiscal 2010 projections. The revisions sent the consensus earnings estimate 18 cents higher to $4.11 per share. (One analyst revised his forecast within the past 7 days.)

PALM, one of the year's hottest stocks, saw its shares jump even higher following last week's report. The company generated a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of 40 cents per share, which was 32 cents better than the analysts had projected. PALM's results were aided by the initial shipments of the Pre, though the new phone will have a much greater impact during fiscal 2010.

Following the report, 4 of the 6 covering analysts revised their projections for the current year. The consensus estimate now calls for a loss of 28 cents, 88 cents narrower than the average forecast of a week ago.

Of course, any discussion about smartphones would not be complete without mentioning Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). One million units of the iPhone 3GS were sold during the launch weekend, an impressive number.

Two analysts have since raised their fiscal 2009 forecasts. Though the revisions were not significant enough to move the consensus earnings estimate (36 analysts cover AAPL), they do suggest that the average projection of $5.50 per share could be too conservative.

PALM and STEC are a Zacks #2 Rank ("buy") stocks. AAPL, RIMM and STX are Zacks #3 Rank ("hold") stocks. STX and STEC are classified in Computer-Storage Devices. PALM and RIMM are classified in Telecom Equipment. AAPL is classified in Computer-Micro.

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SOURCE: Zacks.com

Charles Rotblut, CFA 
Zacks.com 
Phone: 312-265-9352 
Email: pr@zacks.com 
Visit: www.Zacks.com