Seagate has reported its preliminary financials for its first quarter of 2017, expecting revenue generation of approximately $2.8 billion and a GAAP/non-GAAP gross margin of 29%.

The company's GAAP expenses are expected to be around $580 million, while non-GAAP expenses are expected to be $470 million.

These numbers are slightly higher than last year, and the company attributes this to higher variable compensation due to better financial performance. Seagate also states that it has $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

“This quarter we returned to our long-term targeted margin profitability and operating income ranges and generated significant cash flow from operations,” “Our strong results reflect persistent growth and demand for cloud-based storage exabyte capacity and our new high capacity HDD products are gaining traction in the marketplace," says Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman and CEO.

At the same time, we are refreshing our full HDD product portfolio with cost optimised products and our organisation continues to execute our company-wide restructuring and cost containment activities," Luczo continues.

The company believes the revenue generation will come from 67 exabyte shipments of its HDDs. Shipments are expected to reach 39 million, while each HDD will have an average capacity of 1.7 terabytes.

“With the ever-growing demand for HDD storage capacity and our focus on providing the most comprehensive product portfolio with leading technology, Seagate should continue to deliver solid financial performance and strong shareholder return for the years to come," Luczo concludes.

The official financial results are due to be released on October 19.