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NASDAQ

Quantum CORP

QMCO

13 stories

$798M Market cap · 2026-10-28

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Fajasy on X

Quantum $QMCO ran to $34.50 on October 2, 2026, and has fallen 41.3% since, to $20.25/share. No $QMCO insider has bought or sold shares in the open market since my August 16 update, including Dialectic, the activist fund managed by director John Fichthorn. Dialectic received 14.1M shares in June when it settled its convertible notes, 35.8% of the 39.4M shares outstanding, which makes it $QMCO’s largest shareholder. Its lockup, which also covered $QMCO’s officers and directors, ended on August 23, 30 days after the PIPE shares were registered for resale. So Dialectic could’ve sold into the run to $34.50, and it hasn’t reported a sale. On October 1, $QMCO granted options to buy shares at $31.885, that day’s close, to three executives: → Hugues Meyrath (CEO): 500,000 options. → James Clancy (COO): 400,000 options plus 150,000 RSUs. → Anthony Craythorne (Chief Revenue Officer): 200,000 options. The options vest monthly over four years and only pay off above $31.885, 57.5% above $20.25. CFO William White, fired eight days later, got no grant. So the largest holder hasn’t sold, and management’s new options only pay off above $31.885. But no insider bought during the drop either.
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Fajasy on X

On October 2, 2026, Seagate $STX and Western Digital $WDC each fell 10.2%, while Quantum $QMCO rose 8.2% to its $34.50 peak. $QMCO’s drop started the week before it fired its CFO on October 9, along with a selloff in hard drive stocks. Toshiba, which makes hard drives like $STX and $WDC, said on October 2 that its Philippine plant is “aiming to nearly double its annual production capacity” of data center hard drives by its fiscal year starting April 2027. More hard drive supply could (1) hurt $QMCO by easing the disk shortage that helped push customers toward tape, as I covered in my April 22 tape primer, and (2) help $QMCO by easing the constraints on “certain disk drives” that CEO Hugues Meyrath mentioned on the June-quarter call. From October 2 to October 9, $QMCO fell 11.8%, vs. 4.3-8.0% for SanDisk $SNDK, $STX, and $WDC. Then, from the October 9 close, before the firing was disclosed, to October 27, $QMCO fell another 33.4%, vs. 4.1-17.5% for the three storage stocks. So the storage selloff explains part of the drop from $34.50, but most of it came after the firing, which is specific to $QMCO.
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Fajasy on X

The first thing I said I’d watch on Quantum $QMCO in my August 16 update was $IBM’s tape drive supply, since CEO Hugues Meyrath said on the June-quarter call that “customers’ demand remains stronger than our ability to fulfill it.” The LTO Program, the group of $HPE, $IBM, and $QMCO that sets the LTO tape standard, reported on September 1, 2026 that tape capacity shipped in Q1 2026 rose 57% from Q1 2025. The 57% measures data capacity, and each new LTO generation holds more data per cartridge, so capacity shipped can grow faster than the number of cartridges sold. Meyrath said on the June-quarter call that $QMCO’s $82.0M ±$2M revenue guidance for the September quarter is only “mildly up” because tape drive supply had stayed “flat for the past handful of months.” $IBM, which supplies the drives, had told $QMCO it would increase production toward the back half of the year, but Meyrath said the increase still hadn’t shown up as of August. So by Meyrath’s account, $IBM’s drive supply, not demand, limits how much $QMCO can sell for now. $QMCO’s quarterly revenue has risen from $62.7M in the September 2025 quarter to $80.8M in the June quarter. Secondary storage, which $QMCO’s 10-K describes as “primarily tape storage systems,” drove the growth. It doubled from a year earlier to $37.0M in the June quarter, 46% of total revenue, up from 29%. That $18.5M increase was more than the $16.5M rise in total revenue, since primary storage, $QMCO’s file and object storage systems, fell to $8.5M from $12.5M.
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Fajasy on X

I compared the 8-K on Quantum’s $QMCO CFO firing to the one on its chief accounting officer’s exit in August. $QMCO terminated William White as CFO on October 9, 2026, effective immediately, eight months after appointing him on February 2, 2026. When I first wrote up $QMCO on May 6, White was its newly appointed CFO, after the seat had been empty since August 2025. The 8-K gives no reason, and I found no press release about the firing on $QMCO’s investor relations site. Instead, the 8-K says $QMCO expects to file its September-quarter 10-Q on time. The filing also says $QMCO expects to meet or exceed its guidance for the quarter, even though it was still “early in its financial closing process.” Chief accounting officer Hiral Patel took over as principal financial officer, so she now signs off on $QMCO’s financial statements with the CEO. Patel only joined $QMCO on September 1, after the company decided on August 11 to replace Laura Nash as chief accounting officer. The 8-K on Nash says there are “no disagreements” between her and the company, but the one on White doesn’t say either way. So within two months, $QMCO replaced both of its top finance officers. $QMCO’s June-quarter 10-Q still reports material weaknesses (the most serious kind of gap in a company’s financial reporting controls) in revenue recognition, inventory, and income taxes. It also says $QMCO “lacked sufficiently qualified staff or resources to perform control activities.” None of the weaknesses has led to a material misstatement, but $QMCO has restated its financial statements before, in May 2024 and again in August 2025. In my May 6 write-up, I listed restatements as a risk that could break the story, and wrote that a third “would be a serious credibility hit.” $QMCO expected to fix one of its three revenue weaknesses, the schedules that set when service revenue is recognized, by the end of the September quarter. Its June-quarter 10-Q was also officially filed on August 11, a day after its 40-day deadline, and its FY2026 10-K needed a notice of late filing in June. So with open material weaknesses, a history of restatements, and a 10-Q filed a day late in August, I’d rather see the September-quarter 10-Q, due November 9, before taking $QMCO at its word.
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Fajasy on X

A tape library maker fired its CFO on October 9, 2026, without giving a reason, and its stock is now down 41.3% from its October 2 peak. Within two months, it replaced both of its top finance officers. Yet it still expects to meet or exceed its September-quarter guidance. That company is Quantum $QMCO, which makes tape libraries that companies use to archive data for years. $QMCO has fallen to $20.25/share, down 22.4% since my August update, but still more than double the $9.42 investors paid in its June private placement (PIPE). Worth mentioning that the larger hard drive and flash memory stocks have fallen from their 2026 highs as well, through the October 27 close: → SanDisk $SNDK: Down 44.1% to $1,304.84/share. → Seagate $STX: Down 39.0% to $667.85/share. → Western Digital $WDC: Down 49.0% to $380.88/share. So $QMCO fell about as far as the group, but in under four weeks instead of four months, and mostly after the CFO was fired. Besides the firing, three accounting issues hang over $QMCO’s September-quarter 10-Q, due November 9: 1) Material weaknesses: $QMCO’s June-quarter 10-Q still reports material weaknesses (the most serious kind of gap in a company’s financial reporting controls) in revenue recognition, inventory, and income taxes. 2) Restatements: None of the weaknesses has led to a material misstatement, but $QMCO has restated its financial statements before, in May 2024 and again in August 2025. 3) Late filings: Its June-quarter 10-Q was officially filed on August 11, a day after its 40-day deadline, and its FY2026 10-K needed a notice of late filing in June. Still, tape demand is growing, and no $QMCO insider has sold since my August update: → Tape: Secondary storage, which $QMCO’s 10-K describes as “primarily tape storage systems,” doubled from a year earlier to $37.0M in the June quarter, 46% of total revenue, up from 29%. → Industry: The LTO Program, the group of $HPE, $IBM, and $QMCO that sets the LTO tape standard, reported on September 1, 2026 that tape capacity shipped in Q1 2026 rose 57% from Q1 2025. → Supply: By CEO Hugues Meyrath’s account, $IBM’s drive supply, not demand, limits how much $QMCO can sell for now. → Insiders: No $QMCO insider has bought or sold shares in the open market since my August update, including Dialectic, the activist fund managed by director John Fichthorn. $QMCO’s EV is $825.3M, counting its warrants, options, and RSUs. That’s 2.8x TTM revenue, down from 4.9x at the October 2 peak, but still 34.4x the September quarter’s $6M ±$1M of adjusted EBITDA guidance, annualized. So is $QMCO’s drop a pullback worth buying, or a warning about the numbers? That’s what I answer in my new update on $QMCO, including my bear, base, and bull cases.

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