- Susquehanna analyst Mehdi Hosseini downgraded the Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) to Negative and Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC) to Neutral.
- Hosseini slashed Seagate's price targets to $65 (20.7% downside) and Western Digital to $50 (6.3% upside).
- Even though hard disk drive shipments are likely to be higher in the near term and the second half of 2022 and the average selling price of NAND has reversed, he saw the likelihood of weaker demand next year that could hurt the companies' earnings.
- He saw a peaking in quarterly Cloud spending in the second half of 2022, followed by relatively weaker spending trends into 2023.
- Hosseini saw NAND prices likely to recover in the June and September quarters. However, overall Cloud and enterprise demand will likely weaken into the year-end leading to falling prices.
- Price Action: STX shares traded lower by 2.48% at $82.02, and WDC lower by 1.61% at $47.09 on the last check Thursday.
