Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) Raises Dividend to $0.72 Per Share

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 22nd, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Sunday, December 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.72 per share by the data storage provider on Monday, January 6th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.78%. This is a boost from Seagate Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70.

Seagate Technology has increased its dividend payment by an average of 2.2% per year over the last three years. Seagate Technology has a payout ratio of 40.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Seagate Technology to earn $10.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.9%.

Seagate Technology Trading Down 8.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ STX opened at $103.52 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $21.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -80.25 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $105.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $99.55. Seagate Technology has a 1-year low of $64.12 and a 1-year high of $115.32.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.13 billion. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 30.18% and a net margin of 11.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.34) EPS. Analysts forecast that Seagate Technology will post 7.09 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Seagate Technology news, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 25,760 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.54, for a total value of $2,435,350.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 52,620 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,974,694.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, SVP John Christopher Morris sold 1,131 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 7,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $804,672.90. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 25,760 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.54, for a total value of $2,435,350.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 52,620 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,974,694.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 214,298 shares of company stock worth $22,814,576 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.89% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on STX shares. Barclays increased their target price on Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Citigroup raised their target price on Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $125.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday. Loop Capital raised their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $118.83.

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.