Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Rating Increased to Buy at Benchmark

Benchmark upgraded shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $120.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on STX. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $124.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Seagate Technology from $133.00 to $129.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $122.56.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

NASDAQ STX opened at $108.18 on Wednesday. Seagate Technology has a fifty-two week low of $82.31 and a fifty-two week high of $115.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.25 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $94.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.33.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.13 billion. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 32.19% and a net margin of 11.34%. Seagate Technology’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.34) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Seagate Technology will post 7.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 19th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 19th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is 75.20%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Yolanda Lee Conyers sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.82, for a total transaction of $76,365.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,555 shares in the company, valued at approximately $667,430.10. This trade represents a 10.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Kian Fatt Chong sold 9,182 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.50, for a total transaction of $968,701.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,073 shares of company stock valued at $5,106,149 in the last ninety days. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blair William & Co. IL acquired a new stake in Seagate Technology during the second quarter worth $314,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 96,580.0% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 9,668 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $998,000 after purchasing an additional 9,658 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 33.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 14,484 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,496,000 after purchasing an additional 3,647 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in Seagate Technology by 26.1% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 10,475 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,081,000 after buying an additional 2,165 shares during the period. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Seagate Technology by 2,407.1% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 351 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 337 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Seagate Technology Company Profile

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.