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

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during 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 traded. The stock had previously closed at $126.97.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on STX. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $99.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Seagate Technology currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $119.42.

Insider Transactions at Seagate Technology

In other news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 70,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.47, for a total value of $7,662,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 485,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,167,061.19. This trade represents a 12.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 4,201 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.00, for a total transaction of $483,115.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 22,999 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,644,885. The trade was a 15.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 393,192 shares of company stock valued at $46,303,128 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in Seagate Technology by 133.1% during the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,681 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,094,000 after buying an additional 7,240 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Seagate Technology in the fourth quarter worth about $25,729,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 84,222 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,360,000 after buying an additional 7,599 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 460.8% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 18,361 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,585,000 after buying an additional 15,087 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 207.0% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 5,774 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $498,000 after buying an additional 3,893 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $27.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.40 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $95.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $94.54.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.14 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 14.67% and a negative return on equity of 63.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be given a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 25th. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is 41.62%.

Seagate Technology declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 22nd that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to reacquire up to 21.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.