Setting store in storage vendors

Not every good news story about upwardly spiralling stock prices is happening on the content side. Hardware and other infrastructure providers are still going strong where it really counts - on the revenue line.

Veritas Software is one to have experienced the upside of the healthy storage hardware industry, with a tenfold increase in its shares over the past year.

Veritas stock had been moribund as profits had turned into heavy losses. The announcement of support for both Red Hat Linux and Windows 2000 have given the company good prospects for 2000.

A steady run-up at the end of 1999 was justified on January 28 when the company topped analysts' estimates for fourth quarter earnings and announced a 3-for-2 stock split.

The stock gained five per cent on the day to around US$165, and is now sitting above US$220.

Analysts from CS First Boston and Goldman Sachs were among those to upgrade their ratings for the stock.

NEW BEARINGS

Seagate Technology has had a more even time, with its most recent quarterly earnings being a disappointment to analysts who expected it to continue its strong fiscal performance.

Despite this hiccup, the stock has sedately followed the rest of the tech section up recently.

The stock made a late jump at the start of March due to an announcement of a deal with Japanese ball bearing maker Minebea to jointly develop Seagate's fluid dynamic bearing motor technology.

Manufacturing plants in Thailand are expected to be ready for production at the end of 2000, fuelling an expected rise in revenues.