Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Lifted to “Buy” at StockNews.com

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

STX has been the topic of a number of other reports. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Seagate Technology from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “negative” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Seagate Technology from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $115.94.

Seagate Technology Stock Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:STX opened at $112.12 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $104.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $99.21. Seagate Technology has a twelve month low of $64.12 and a twelve month high of $115.32. The stock has a market cap of $23.54 billion, a P/E ratio of -86.91 and a beta of 1.04.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The data storage provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.29. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 5.11%. The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.29) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Seagate Technology will post 7.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.50%. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is -217.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 10,117 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $1,112,870.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 5,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,570. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Seagate Technology news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 10,117 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $1,112,870.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 5,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $592,570. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $93.46, for a total value of $1,869,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 654,270 shares in the company, valued at $61,148,074.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 223,284 shares of company stock valued at $23,800,887 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 68.7% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 17,564 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,634,000 after purchasing an additional 7,150 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Seagate Technology by 2.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 258,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $24,011,000 after buying an additional 6,044 shares in the last quarter. Chapin Davis Inc. increased its position in Seagate Technology by 210.8% in the first quarter. Chapin Davis Inc. now owns 29,152 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,713,000 after buying an additional 19,773 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Seagate Technology by 21.1% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 232,957 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $21,677,000 after buying an additional 40,649 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its position in Seagate Technology by 15.7% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 60,702 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,648,000 after buying an additional 8,242 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by 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.