Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Susquehanna Analyst Says

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) had its price target upped by Susquehanna from $65.00 to $68.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a negative rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Northland Securities reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price target (up from $144.00) on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho decreased their target price on Seagate Technology from $130.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $124.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Seagate Technology currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.56.

Seagate Technology Stock Up 6.8 %

STX stock opened at $108.18 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $94.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $100.33. The company has a market capitalization of $22.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.25 and a beta of 1.06. Seagate Technology has a fifty-two week low of $82.31 and a fifty-two week high of $115.32.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued 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. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 11.34% and a negative return on equity of 32.19%. The company had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.34) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology will post 7.18 EPS for the current year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 19th. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is 75.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.53, for a total transaction 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 approximately $63,947,726.41. This trade represents a 3.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Yolanda Lee Conyers sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.82, for a total value of $76,365.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,555 shares in the company, valued at $667,430.10. This trade represents a 10.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,073 shares of company stock valued at $5,106,149. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in STX. Sanders Capital LLC increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 0.9% in the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 16,367,591 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,792,742,000 after buying an additional 150,115 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 541,585 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,162,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $454,477,000 after purchasing an additional 318,416 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 405,232 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Duquesne Family Office LLC boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 22.0% in the second quarter. Duquesne Family Office LLC now owns 1,755,278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $181,268,000 after purchasing an additional 316,295 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.