Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Raised 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 report sent to investors on Thursday.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on STX. Wedbush lifted their target price on Seagate Technology from $100.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Seagate Technology currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $115.94.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

STX stock opened at $112.12 on Thursday. Seagate Technology has a 1-year low of $64.12 and a 1-year high of $115.32. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $104.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $99.16. The company has a market capitalization of $23.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.81 and a beta of 1.04.

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

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 23rd. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is 181.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 10,117 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total transaction of $1,112,870.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 5,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,570. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Seagate Technology news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.46, for a total value of $1,869,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 654,270 shares in the company, valued at $61,148,074.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 10,117 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total transaction of $1,112,870.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 5,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $592,570. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 223,284 shares of company stock valued at $23,800,887. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Seagate Technology in the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its position in Seagate Technology by 2,407.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 351 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 337 shares during the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in Seagate Technology during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Seagate Technology by 15,766.7% during the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 476 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares during the period. Finally, Viking Fund Management LLC grew its position in Seagate Technology by 722.2% in the 1st quarter. Viking Fund Management LLC now owns 740 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.