Morgan Stanley upgrades early cycle beneficiary Seagate to Overweight

As previously reported, Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring upgraded Seagate to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $69, up from $54. While he is upgrading his IT Hardware industry view to "In-Line" from "Cautious" as the final stage of late cycle transitions to an early cycle rebound, Woodring said he expects demand weakness to persist into the first half. His upgrade of Seagate is part of starting to transition away from defensive names, towards more transactional, early cycle beneficiaries, Woodring explains. He thinks the December quarter will be the hard disk drive, or HDD, market bottom, Woodring added.