Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Upgraded to Buy by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Monday.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Loop Capital lifted their target price on Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $115.94.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

NASDAQ STX opened at $108.80 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $101.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $97.52. The stock has a market cap of $22.90 billion, a PE ratio of -83.74 and a beta of 1.03. Seagate Technology has a fifty-two week low of $64.12 and a fifty-two week high of $113.57.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The data storage provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 5.11%. Seagate Technology’s quarterly revenue was up 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.29) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Seagate Technology will post 6.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd will be issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently -217.05%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 141,785 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.18, for a total transaction of $15,621,871.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 668,616 shares in the company, valued at $73,668,110.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 25,760 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.54, for a total value of $2,435,350.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 52,620 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,974,694.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 141,785 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.18, for a total value of $15,621,871.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 668,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,668,110.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 223,284 shares of company stock worth $23,800,887 over the last 90 days. 0.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,753,076 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,303,274,000 after buying an additional 746,395 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Seagate Technology by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 16,614,884 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,418,413,000 after acquiring an additional 4,685,454 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in Seagate Technology by 14.5% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,656,828 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $247,218,000 after acquiring an additional 337,464 shares during the last quarter. Duquesne Family Office LLC grew its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 22.0% during the 2nd quarter. Duquesne Family Office LLC now owns 1,755,278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $181,268,000 after acquiring an additional 316,295 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,019,657 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $105,306,000 after purchasing an additional 9,062 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

About Seagate Technology

Seagate Technology Holdings plc provides data storage technology and solutions in Singapore, the United States, the Netherlands, and internationally. It provides mass capacity storage products, including enterprise nearline hard disk drives (HDDs), enterprise nearline solid state drives (SSDs), enterprise nearline systems, video and image HDDs, and network-attached storage drives.