Seagate Swings to Sizable Loss

The company expects revenue to be approximately $1.9 billion to $2.2 billion, and gross margin as a percentage of revenue to improve by 300 to 400 basis points compared to the March quarter.

Despite citing lack of visibility into the future, Seagate expects a net loss per share between 37 cents and 47 cents, although this includes 8 cents per share of restructuring charges.

At least one analyst warns that it could be some time before Seagate sees a significant uptick in demand for its products.

"We expect demand conditions to remain soft, but stable for the foreseeable future," wrote Jayson Noland, an analyst R.W. Baird, in a recent note, downgrading Seagate to Neutral. "We do not expect demand to accelerate into the second half of calendar year 2009."