Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Given “Hold” Rating at Benchmark

Benchmark reaffirmed their hold rating on shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) in a research report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on STX. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $65.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $73.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Mizuho restated a buy rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Wedbush restated a neutral rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Seagate Technology has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $94.53.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

Seagate Technology stock opened at $86.04 on Wednesday. Seagate Technology has a 1 year low of $54.47 and a 1 year high of $101.26. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $89.25 and its 200-day moving average is $82.92. The company has a market cap of $18.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -66.70, a PEG ratio of 480.77 and a beta of 1.04.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The data storage provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.68 billion. The business’s revenue was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.43) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Seagate Technology will post 0.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 20th. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is currently -217.05%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of STX. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA acquired a new stake in Seagate Technology in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. CVA Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 85.4% during the third quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 445 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwest Financial Advisors acquired a new position in Seagate Technology in the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.