Bank of America Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) had its price objective boosted by analysts at Bank of America from $135.00 to $145.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 13.29% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on STX. Mizuho lowered their target price on Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Seagate Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $119.42.

Seagate Technology Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of STX stock opened at $127.99 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $95.36 and a 200-day moving average of $94.54. The stock has a market cap of $27.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.40 and a beta of 1.40. Seagate Technology has a 1-year low of $63.19 and a 1-year high of $132.23.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.15. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 14.67% and a negative return on equity of 63.48%. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. Seagate Technology’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 22nd that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 21.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Seagate Technology

In related news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 4,201 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.00, for a total transaction of $483,115.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,644,885. The trade was a 15.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.56, for a total value of $1,691,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 555,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $46,988,047.12. This represents a 3.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 393,192 shares of company stock worth $46,303,128 over the last ninety days. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the 1st quarter valued at $300,000. United Services Automobile Association bought a new position in Seagate Technology in the 1st quarter worth about $385,000. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 4,314 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $366,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 77.4% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 17,351 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,474,000 after acquiring an additional 7,569 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panoramic Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 591.8% during the first quarter. Panoramic Capital LLC now owns 131,433 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $11,165,000 after purchasing an additional 112,433 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.