Seagate Collaborates With eBay to Boost Sustainability

Seagate Technology Holdings plc STX is collaborating with eBay to set up its storefront on the latter's e-commerce platform. The storefront on eBay EBAY will establish a direct channel for STX's consumers to gain access to "factory-recertified" hard drives. These recertified (by Seagate) drives will also come with a limited warranty.

STX, as a part of the Seagate Circularity Program, is looking to lower hard drive shredding and boost the reuse of storage devices. Hard drive shredding is an unsustainable practice as the rare earth materials used cannot be reused when the hard drive is broken down.

The company has been the founding member of the Circular Drive Initiative, which is a collaboration between global companies (engaged across verticals like data centers, digital storage, sustainability and blockchain) to lower electronic wastage.

Seagate highlighted that it was highly focused on data sanitization and thorough data deletion for the company's factory-recertified drives. These practices prevent data recovery post decommissioning by following industry standards such as NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 1, IEEE 2883, and ISO/IEC 27040:2015. It is expected to boost hard drive circularity.

Seagate Technology Holdings PLC Price and Consensus

Seagate Technology Holdings PLC price-consensus-chart | Seagate Technology Holdings PLC Quote

STX added that the partnership with eBay will boost the amount of data storage on the best quality recertified hard drives. Extending the life cycles of quality hard drives by reusing these in service should reduce wastage and lower carbon footprint.

In fiscal 2023, Seagate noted that it lowered 553 metric tons of e-waste (assuming each drive to be 465 grams) by extending the life of 1.19 million hard drives and solid-state drives. 

Per the ESG performance report published on Apr 22, 2024, STX expects to run its manufacturing and research and development facilities with 100% renewable energy by 2030. It targets to attain carbon neutrality by 2040.

Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Seagate is a leading provider of data storage technology and infrastructure solutions. Though the company's primary product offering is hard disk drives, it also develops other electronic data storage products such as solid-state drives and storage subsystems.

At present, STX carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). In the past year, shares have gained 64.8% year to date compared with the S&P 500 composite and sub-industry's growth of 24.3% and 42.6%, respectively.

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Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks worth consideration in the broader technology space are Alphabet GOOGL, Arista Networks ANET and Woodward WWD, currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) each.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Alphabet's 2024 EPS is pegged at $7.60, up 12.1% in the past 60 days. GOOGL's earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, the average surprise being 11.3%. The long-term earnings growth rate is 17.5%. Shares of GOOGL have risen 42.1% in the past year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Arista Network's 2024 EPS is pegged at $7.92, up 5.7% in the past 60 days. The long-term earnings growth rate is 15.7%. ANET's earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, the average surprise being 15.4%. Shares of ANET have gained 120.2% in the past year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Woodward's fiscal 2024 EPS has increased 11.4% in the past 60 days to $5.88. WWD earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, the average surprise being 26.1%. The long-term earnings growth rate is 16.5%. Shares of WWD have risen 60.2% in the past year.

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