The stock market seemed to get itself back on a more even keel on Thursday morning, seeking to reach some level of stability following massive movements earlier in the week and throughout the month of January. As of 8:15 a.m. ET, futures on the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +2.02%) were up a bit more than half a percent, leading other major market benchmarks higher.
This has been a busy week for companies releasing earnings, and a couple of Nasdaq-listed stocks made big moves higher as they told investors about how the last few months have gone. Two of the biggest gainers were Xilinx (XLNX +0.00%) and Seagate Technology (STX +2.00%), both of which have strong ties to the tech industry. Below, you'll find out what each of those two companies said and why shareholders are celebrating.
Xilinx is moving ahead
Shares of Xilinx were up more than 6% in premarket trading Thursday morning. The maker of field programmable gate arrays and other semiconductor chips enjoyed strong results and also had good news on its potential acquisition.
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Xilinx's fiscal third-quarter numbers showed how healthy the semiconductor industry has been lately. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.01 billion, up 26% year over year even as the company faced supply constraints. Growth was especially strong in Xilinx's data center group, with 81% year-over-year gains driven by strong demand for computing and networking applications. Xilinx also saw healthy demand from its segment serving the aerospace and defense, industrial, and test/measurement and emulation industries. Adjusted earnings soared 65% from year-ago levels to $1.29 per share, which topped expectations.
Xilinx also got good news from regulators in China, which offered their conditional approval for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +18.37%) to move forward with its efforts to close its acquisition of Xilinx. Regulators in the U.S., U.K., and Europe had already given their assent, and so it seems more likely that the deal will get done sometime in the first quarter of 2022.
Assuming the deal goes forward, Xilinx shareholders will eventually receive AMD stock. From there, they'll still benefit if conditions in the semiconductor industry remain as strong as they've been lately.
A nice jump for Seagate
Shares of Seagate Technology moved even higher, rising nearly 10% in premarket trading. The maker of data storage equipment made investors happy with its fiscal second-quarter financial results.
Seagate reported revenue growth of 19% from year-earlier levels in its fiscal second quarter. The company cited extremely strong demand from cloud data center clients for high-capacity storage products. Adjusted net income soared 68% year over year, with adjusted earnings coming in at $2.41 per share. Seagate boasted $426 million in free cash flow for the quarter, up 39% and helping to support the company's efforts to return capital to shareholders.
Moreover, Seagate's expectations for the fiscal third quarter look encouraging. Revenue should come in between $2.75 billion and $3.1 billion, with earnings per share of somewhere between $1.80 and $2.20 per share on an adjusted basis.
As companies have adopted digital transformation efforts, Seagate has seen its storage business become highly relevant once again. Investors like how the company is executing in taking advantage of this opportunity, and for now, Seagate sees no reason for a slowdown in the near future.
