Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Price Target Raised to $145.00

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) had its price objective raised by Bank of America from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research note published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on STX. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Mizuho dropped their price target on Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $140.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $119.42.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

Shares of STX opened at $126.49 on Monday. Seagate Technology has a 1 year low of $63.19 and a 1 year high of $132.23. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $96.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $94.76. The firm has a market cap of $26.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.12 and a beta of 1.40.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.15. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 63.48% and a net margin of 14.67%. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.14 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. Seagate Technology’s revenue was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be given a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.28%. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.62%.

Seagate Technology announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 22nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to reacquire up to 21.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Seagate Technology

In related news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.56, for a total transaction of $1,691,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 555,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,988,047.12. The trade was a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Yolanda Lee Conyers sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.01, for a total value of $87,757.50. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $591,485.55. The trade was a 12.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 393,192 shares of company stock valued at $46,303,128 in the last three months. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new stake in Seagate Technology in the 1st quarter valued at $300,000. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the 1st quarter worth $385,000. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 4,314 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 77.4% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 17,351 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,474,000 after purchasing an additional 7,569 shares during the period. Finally, Panoramic Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 591.8% during the 1st quarter. Panoramic Capital LLC now owns 131,433 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $11,165,000 after purchasing an additional 112,433 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is currently 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.