Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Sets New 12-Month High on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $135.00 to $145.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Seagate Technology traded as high as $132.23 and last traded at $131.46, with a volume of 1544708 shares. The stock had previously closed at $126.97.

STX has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 16th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $99.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Seagate Technology currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $119.42.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Judy Bruner sold 10,446 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.71, for a total value of $1,135,584.66. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 12,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,333,654.28. This represents a 45.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.56, for a total value of $1,691,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 555,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $46,988,047.12. This trade represents a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 27,594 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,382,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 37.8% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 20,150 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,760,000 after acquiring an additional 5,527 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 479,613 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $41,395,000 after acquiring an additional 14,185 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,887 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,112,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 460.8% during the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 18,361 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,585,000 after acquiring an additional 15,087 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Seagate Technology Trading Down 1.7%

The company has a market capitalization of $27.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.40 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $95.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $94.54.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.14 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology Holdings plc will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.62%.

Seagate Technology declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 22nd that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to repurchase up to 21.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.