Kovack Advisors Inc. Sells 104 Shares of Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)

Kovack Advisors Inc. trimmed its stake in Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) by 3.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,602 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 104 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Seagate Technology were worth $285,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in STX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 3.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,753,076 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,303,274,000 after acquiring an additional 746,395 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in Seagate Technology by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 2,656,828 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $247,218,000 after purchasing an additional 337,464 shares during the period. Duquesne Family Office LLC grew its holdings in Seagate Technology by 22.0% in the 2nd quarter. Duquesne Family Office LLC now owns 1,755,278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $181,268,000 after buying an additional 316,295 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Seagate Technology by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,019,657 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $105,306,000 after buying an additional 9,062 shares during the period. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 6.5% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 582,295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $60,134,000 after buying an additional 35,545 shares during the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Seagate Technology Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of Seagate Technology stock opened at $96.79 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.27 and a beta of 1.05. Seagate Technology Holdings plc has a 12-month low of $74.33 and a 12-month high of $115.32. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $105.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $101.23.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last posted its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.34) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology Holdings plc will post 7.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 6th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, December 15th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This is a positive change from Seagate Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 73.11%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on STX shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Seagate Technology presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $118.83.

Insider Activity at Seagate Technology

In related news, Director Yolanda Lee Conyers sold 750 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.10, for a total value of $72,075.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,034 shares in the company, valued at $291,567.40. This trade represents a 19.82 % 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, SVP Kian Fatt Chong sold 9,182 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.50, for a total transaction of $968,701.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 201,820 shares of company stock valued at $21,892,856 over the last ninety days. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Seagate Technology

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.