StockNews.com Downgrades Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) to Hold

StockNews.com lowered shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Tuesday.

STX has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price objective on Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Seagate Technology presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.53.

Seagate Technology Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of STX opened at $91.23 on Tuesday. Seagate Technology has a 52-week low of $82.31 and a 52-week high of $115.32. The stock has a market cap of $19.30 billion, a PE ratio of 23.82 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $94.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $100.45.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 11.34% and a negative return on equity of 32.19%. Seagate Technology’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.34) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology will post 7.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 6th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, December 15th were paid a $0.72 dividend. This is a positive change from Seagate Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.16%. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Seagate Technology news, SVP John Christopher Morris sold 1,131 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.90, for a total transaction of $126,558.90. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 7,191 shares in the company, valued at $804,672.90. This represents a 13.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.53, for a total value of $1,990,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 642,497 shares in the company, valued at $63,947,726.41. This represents a 3.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,304 shares of company stock valued at $5,656,238 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seagate Technology

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the third quarter worth $133,031,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 341.7% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,308,958 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $143,370,000 after buying an additional 1,012,638 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,502,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $937,081,000 after acquiring an additional 541,585 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 29.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,778,811 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $197,844,000 after acquiring an additional 405,232 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Seagate Technology in the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,349,000. 92.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.