Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Shares Gap Up Following Earnings Beat

Shares of Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday following a stronger than expected earnings report. The stock had previously closed at $105.30, but opened at $109.00. Seagate Technology shares last traded at $108.68, with a volume of 1,353,067 shares.

The data storage provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 8.05% and a net margin of 5.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.29) earnings per share.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd will be given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently -217.05%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on STX. TD Cowen boosted 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. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Northland Securities upped their price objective on Seagate Technology from $119.00 to $142.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $115.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Seagate Technology news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 9,703 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $921,785.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,442,575. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Seagate Technology news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 9,703 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $921,785.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,442,575. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP John Christopher Morris sold 11,158 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value of $1,004,220.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 17,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,599,030. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,531 shares of company stock valued at $3,592,946 over the last quarter. 0.89% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sigma Investment Counselors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Seagate Technology in the 2nd quarter valued at about $216,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Seagate Technology in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. My Legacy Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Seagate Technology in the 2nd quarter valued at about $348,000. DT Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 921.5% in the 2nd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,993 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 2,700 shares during the period. Finally, 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 2,982.7% in the 2nd quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 4,809 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $497,000 after buying an additional 4,653 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Seagate Technology Trading Down 5.1 %

The firm has a market cap of $21.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -80.59 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $101.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $92.91.

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.