Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Upgraded to “Buy” at Benchmark

Benchmark upgraded shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $120.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on STX. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $112.00 to $99.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $133.00 to $129.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Summit Insights raised Seagate Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Northland Securities reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 target price (up from $144.00) on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $122.56.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STX opened at $108.18 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.88 billion, a PE ratio of 28.25 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $94.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.33. Seagate Technology has a 1 year low of $82.31 and a 1 year high of $115.32.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.28. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 32.19% and a net margin of 11.34%. The company had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.34) EPS. Seagate Technology’s revenue was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Seagate Technology will post 7.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 19th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 19th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is 75.20%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.83, for a total transaction of $2,056,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 622,497 shares in the company, valued at $64,011,366.51. The trade was a 3.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Kian Fatt Chong sold 9,182 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.50, for a total value of $968,701.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 50,073 shares of company stock valued at $5,106,149. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Seagate Technology during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 2,407.1% in the second 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 period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 177.9% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 403 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JFS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 232.5% during the third quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 419 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the period. 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.