Benchmark Reaffirms Hold Rating for Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX)

Benchmark reiterated their hold rating on shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $110.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised 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. Two equities research 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 presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $115.94.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STX opened at $103.68 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -80.37 and a beta of 1.02. Seagate Technology has a 1-year low of $57.79 and a 1-year high of $113.57. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $101.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $93.16.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The data storage provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 5.11% and a negative return on equity of 8.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.29) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Seagate Technology will post 5.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently -217.05%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 10,117 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 5,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $592,570. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 10,117 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 5,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $592,570. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP John Christopher Morris sold 11,158 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $1,004,220.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 17,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,599,030. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 47,648 shares of company stock worth $4,705,816. 0.89% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of STX. Leisure Capital Management raised its holdings in Seagate Technology by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. Leisure Capital Management now owns 15,830 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,635,000 after acquiring an additional 881 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Seagate Technology by 46.4% in the 2nd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,097 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $423,000 after acquiring an additional 1,298 shares during the period. Kintegral Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Seagate Technology by 26.6% in the 2nd quarter. Kintegral Advisory LLC now owns 7,557 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $786,000 after acquiring an additional 1,587 shares during the period. Emfo LLC bought a new position in Seagate Technology in the 2nd quarter worth $181,000. Finally, Checchi Capital Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Seagate Technology by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 3,945 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $407,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

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.