Seagate Technology Reports Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Results
“Seagate delivered robust financial performance for the June quarter amid an improving cloud demand environment, capping off a fiscal year of strong execution against our financial goals. Q4 revenue grew 18% year-over-year, non-GAAP gross margin expanded to nearly 31%, and non-GAAP EPS exceeded the high end of our guidance range,” said Dave Mosley, Seagate’s chief executive officer. “In fiscal 2025, we are remaining focused on driving profitability and maintaining supply discipline while continuing to execute our mass capacity product roadmap, anchored by our HAMR technology. Our data storage solutions offer our cloud and enterprise customers with cost, power and space advantages that support their investments in critical AI and other data-driven initiatives,” Mosley concluded.
During the fiscal fourth quarter the Company generated $434 million in cash flow from operations, $380 million in free cash flow, and returned $147 million of capital to shareholders through its quarterly dividend. Additionally, the Company sold the System-on-Chip Operations for $600 million during the fiscal fourth quarter, which included cash proceeds of $560 million. The remaining $40 million is expected to be received by the end of fiscal year 2026. Of the $560 million cash proceeds, $326 million was recorded as an investing inflow and $226 million, net of transaction costs, was recorded in both cash flow from operations and in free cash flow. For fiscal year 2024, the Company generated $918 million in cash flow from operations, $664 million in free cash flow, and paid cash dividends of $585 million. As of the end of the fiscal year, cash and cash equivalents totaled approximately $1.4 billion, and there were approximately 210 million ordinary shares issued and outstanding. Additionally, during the fiscal year, the Company issued $1.5 billion of convertible notes to primarily retire its term loans in the fiscal first quarter.
Seagate has issued a Supplemental Financial Information document, which is available on Seagate’s Investor Relations website at investors.seagate.com.
Quarterly Cash Dividend
The Board of Directors of the Company (the “Board”) declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.70 per share, which will be payable on October 7, 2024, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on September 23, 2024. 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.
Business Outlook
The business outlook for the fiscal first quarter 2025 is based on our current assumptions and expectations; actual results may differ materially as a result of, among other things, the important factors discussed in the Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements section of this release.
The Company is providing the following guidance for its fiscal first quarter 2025:
- Revenue of $2.10 billion, plus or minus $150 million
- Non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.40, plus or minus $0.20
Guidance regarding non-GAAP diluted EPS excludes known pre-tax charges related to estimated share-based compensation expenses of $0.16 per share.
We have not reconciled our non-GAAP diluted EPS guidance for fiscal first quarter 2025 to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, other than estimated share-based compensation expenses, because material items that may impact these measures are out of our control and/or cannot be reasonably predicted, including, but not limited to, accelerated depreciation, impairment and other charges related to cost saving efforts, net (gain) loss recognized from early redemption of debt, purchase order cancellation fees, strategic investment losses (gains) or impairment charges, income tax adjustments on these measures, and other charges or benefits that may arise. The amounts of these measures are not currently available but may be material to future results. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP diluted EPS guidance for fiscal first quarter 2025 to the corresponding GAAP measures is not available without unreasonable effort. A reconciliation of our historical non-GAAP financial measures to their nearest GAAP equivalent is contained in this release.
Investor Communications
Seagate management will hold a public webcast today at 2:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM ET that can be accessed on its Investor Relations website at investors.seagate.com.