Seagate shares took a hit today after the HDD manufacturer cut its third quarter revenue expectations.

On a release posted on the company website late Friday, Seagate now predicts to report revenue of $2.8bn Q3 — lowered from a previous estimate of $2.9-$3bn.

The company's stock dropped as much as 9 per cent in intraday trading, settling at $22 on the closing bell, a decline of 6.2 per cent.

The company blames the shortfall on aggressive pricing competition and lower-than-expected demand for high capacity 3.5-inch ATA disk drives. Seagate says its market share, both in total and within each market, remains virtually unchanged from last quarter.

The company plans to post results for the quarter on April 17. According to analysts iSuppli, Seagate and former rival Maxtor, recently borged by Seagate, accounted for 41 per cent of HDDs sold last year. ®