Hard drive maker Seagate Technology shares closed down 24 percent on Thursday marking a 52-week low as the company released worse than expected second quarter results and projected a poor quarter outlook.

Shares of Seagate declined 24 percent or $1.02 to close at $3.23 in Nasdaq trading today, a day after the company released its quarterly report.

Seagate reported a steep decline for its second fiscal quarter on Wednesday citing lower sales . It also gave its sales forecast for the current quarter of between $1.6 billion and $2 billion, below $2.18 billion what analysts expected, Reuters noted.

The global economic downturn has hit numerous companies including PC makers and the distributors of PC parts.