Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 18,730,000 shares, a growth of 16.5% from the February 13th total of 16,080,000 shares. Currently, 8.9% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,300,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.7 days.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Seagate Technology by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 14,511 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,252,000 after acquiring an additional 1,832 shares during the last quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter worth about $6,090,000. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH grew its holdings in Seagate Technology by 116.9% in the fourth quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 4,392 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 2,367 shares during the period. Menard Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in Seagate Technology by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 15,247 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,327,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

Shares of Seagate Technology stock opened at $88.38 on Friday. Seagate Technology has a 1 year low of $82.31 and a 1 year high of $115.32. The company has a market capitalization of $18.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.16 and a beta of 1.01. The company’s fifty day moving average is $96.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $98.84.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 19th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 19th. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.65%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “negative” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $112.00 to $99.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $130.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Seagate Technology currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.00.

About Seagate Technology

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.