Seagate, Dow Lead High-Flying Stocks

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- The stock-market rally stalled yesterday as higher-than-expected oil inventories spurred selling. Major indices declined, but a handful of stocks hit 52-week highs.

5. Seagate Technology(STX Quote) rose 3.1% yesterday to $16.80. Microsoft(MSFT Quote) announced plans to use the hard-drive maker's software and EVault cloud service to compete with the back-up products of Symantec(SYMC Quote). Symantec fell 1.4% on the news.

Our take: We rate Seagate Technology "sell." Although the Microsoft partnership offers promising growth, Seagate languished during its 2009 fiscal year, posting losses for three consecutive quarters. Fiscal first-quarter net income doubled to $179 million, or 35 cents, as revenue fell 12% to $2.6 billion. Seagate is liquid, evident in its quick ratio of 1. But its debt-to-equity ratio of 1.3 is higher than the industry average, indicating excessive leverage.