Vikram Rajput also contributed to this note
EMC Corporation(NYSE:EMC) and NetApp(NASDAQ:NTAP) are the two leading enterprise storage vendors. From our analysis of profitability and cash flow metrics, we feel that NTAP has been more successful in taking advantage of the burgeoning demand for storage capacity and more importantly storage management. read more…
Logitech International S.A (NASDAQ:LOGI), Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE:PLT) and Synaptics, Inc (NASDAQ:SYNA) are among the peripheral vendors covered at Gridstone Research. A quick analysis of the revenue and operational metrics disclosed by the three vendors provides two interesting insights.
• Robust PC industry growth, led by notebook shipments, leads to interface peripherals growth. Such peripherals include pointing/interface devices such as Mice, Keyboards, Remotes and Touch Pads.
• Multimedia peripherals had a poor quarter. Multimedia peripherals include headsets, PC speakers, docking audio, gaming peripherals and webcams.
Update(February 28th,2008) - Mid-quarter update from WDC
“…The Company’s performance thus far is better than originally anticipated going into the March quarter, based on strong execution and its leading product and technology portfolios. The Company now expects revenues in the March quarter in the range of $2.0 billion to $2.075 billion (which includes approximately $75 million in media and substrate sales), gross margin of approximately 22% and earnings per share of between $1.05 and $1.11. This compares with revenue of $1.4 billion, gross margin of 15.8% and earnings per share of $0.53 in the year-ago quarter.”
Seagate Technology Inc (NYSE:STX) and Western Digital Corporation (NYSE:WDC) reported strong results for the QE Dec07. Both achieved strong volume growth and significant margin expansion to showcase (See Exhibit I). These results augur well for the PC makers HPQ and DELL who will announce their quarterly results on Feb 19th and 28th respectively. read more…
